SN resolves to go noncustodial on Jan. 3rd

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SN resolves to go noncustodial on Jan. 3rd - FAQ & AMA

What happens to the sats in my SN wallet on Jan. 3rd?

Nothing. The sats in your SN wallet will remain available to withdraw.

So, what happens to the sats in my wallet on Jan. 3rd?

Nothing. The sats in your SN wallet will remain available to withdraw.

So I don't need to panic because sats in my wallet after Jan. 3rd will remain available to withdraw just like they were on Jan. 2nd?

Yes, that's right.

If my sats remain available to withdraw, then what changes on Jan. 3rd?

To zap with real bitcoin and be zapped with real bitcoin, you'll need to attach an external lightning wallet for sending and receiving respectively:

If you want to send real bitcoin to other stackers when you zap them on SN, you'll need to attach an external sending wallet.
If you want to receive bitcoin when you're zapped on SN, you'll need to attach an external receiving wallet.

If I don't have or want to attach external wallets, what happens to the zaps I send and the zaps I receive after Jan. 3rd?

When you zap someone else, you'll send Cowboy Credits and they'll receive Cowboy Credits.
When someone zaps you, you'll receive Cowboy Credits.

What are "Cowboy Credits"?

SN will accept Cowboy Credits as payment for everything it accepts sats for (e.g. posting fees, territory fees, even donations). You can also send them to other stackers as zaps.

So the only difference between Cowboy Credits and sats is that I can't withdraw Cowboy Credits?

That's right. That's the only difference.

What happens to rewards and territory revenue after Jan. 3rd?

Nothing. Rewards and territory revenue will work the same as they do now.

Even if I don't attach an external wallet?

Yes, you'll receive "Reward Sats" which (like all custodial wallet balances) are not to be mistaken as truly yours until you withdraw them. You can also buy Cowboy Credits with Reward Sats if you choose. The only real changes to rewards after Jan. 3rd are:

Reward Sats can't be zapped to other stackers
Reward Sats are subject to the following magic words, aka terms and conditions:
- From time to time, Company may, at its sole discretion, offer and provide prizes or awards of BTC ("Reward Sats") to individuals or entities based on Company initiatives, promotions, or for other reasons determined by Company. Company reserves the right to issue (or not issue) such Reward Sats to any person or entity, at any time, and without prior notice. If you are selected to receive Reward Sats, Company will notify you and will transmit the Reward Sats to your account. In order to claim the Reward Sats, you will be required to set up an account, and may be required to provide certain personal information, including but not limited to, a valid Lightning wallet invoice. Failure to provide accurate and complete information may result in the forfeiture of the Reward Sats. You acknowledge and agree that you do not own, and shall have no right, title, or interest in any Reward Sats until such time as the Reward Sats are successfully transferred to your designated Lightning wallet. Until the transfer is completed, all rights to the Reward Sats remain solely with Company. Company makes no guarantee regarding the timing or availability of any such Reward Sats.

Can I zap other stackers my Reward Sats?

No, without an external sending wallet, you can only zap other stackers Cowboy Credits.

Do Reward Sats, or any of these changes, involve KYC or so-called "soft" KYC?

No, they do not.

What if I receive sats to my SN lightning address after Jan. 3rd?

If you've attached an external receiving wallet, those sats will be non-custodially proxied to your receiving wallet by default. Should you choose, you can disable proxying in your settings and receive sats directly, exposing your receiving node's pubkey.

If you haven't attached an external receiving wallet, or disabled both proxying and direct receives, you'll receive Cowboy Credits.

I have more questions about Jan. 3rd. Where can I ask them?

In this thread. Ask me anything.

I'm a territory founder and this change makes me regret paying for or purchasing a territory.

Please email me.

I'm having a bad day, week, month, year, or life. Where's the best place for me to make you miserable too while pretending that this post is the cause?

In this thread.

I'm miserable but also sanctimonious so I'd like to write a eulogy for SN that you'll read. Where's the best place to do that?

In this thread, but it might be more fitting to write it on nostr or X and tag me.

Will SN ever offer a custodial lightning wallet again?

We may eventually partner with Zebedee and/or Strike and/or whoever to offer a 100% OPTIONAL integrated and regulated custodial wallet, but that will happen well after Jan. 3rd.

What happens to the sats in my SN wallet on Jan. 3rd?

Nothing. The sats in your SN wallet will remain available to withdraw.

This is a repost of an earlier announcement. See #731188 and #722833 for previous discussions.

39 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 1h

If I have an attached wallet, but the lightning node goes offline, what happens when someone tries to zap me or I try to zap someone?

I'd like to be able to configure cowboy credits as a fallback option when wallet is down:

if wallet status is ok:
    zap using wallet
else:
    if CC balance is sufficient:
        zap using CC
    else:
        show payment QR code

I believe the current behavior is more akin to:

if CC balance is sufficient:
    zap using CC
else:
    if wallet status is ok:
        zap using wallet
    else:
        show payment QR code

Of course, by "zap using CC" in the current behavior I'm referring to zap using my SN custodial wallet

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 59m

After Jan 3, it will work exactly how you describe wanting it to work. There might be some tuning required on our end to determine when a node is really down, but our intent is what you describe.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 1h

If your wallet is down, you will receive CCs and send CCs or be shown a QR code if you don't have enough. Does that answer your question?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @astro_penguin 1h freebie

I believe I'm ready!

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @DEADBEEF 2h

For reals this time?

I’m glad I setup Coinos last time. It has been working great!

16 sats \ 2 replies \ @cleaningup12 2h

Thanks for the faq, I've already set coinos as my receiver wallet and sending wallet via nwc, I think.

Incidentally was just looking at the logs and there are a fair few 'WARN' wallet does not support mSATS

26 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 2h

If you’re okay with donating fractions of a sat to us, you can safely ignore.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @cleaningup12 2h

You definitely deserve it koob, you work hard enough

14 sats \ 1 reply \ @cascdr 2h

Sats should rebrand to Cowboy Credits

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 2h

Bitcoin should rebrand to Stacker News.

34 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 2h

Dumb question which may have been answered previously. What if someone tries to game the system by only connecting a receive wallet? Will they zap cc's and receive real bitcoin?

43 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 2h

They can’t zap CCs if they don’t receive or buy any

43 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b OP 2h

Yes, but we plan to give more rewards to zappers of real sats.

38 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 2h

No way to affirmatively punish this slimy activity?

54 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 2h

It might not be slimy is the problem. Maybe they only have WoS or something.

Besides, most stackers will end up spending their CCs fast on posts/comments/boost/territories/donations

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 3h

Is there a reason this post is pinned twice (#2 and bottom of screenshot)? https://i.imgur.com/AUwoFHI.png

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 3h

regression! Thanks

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bitter 3h

Will SN ever offer a custodial lightning wallet again?

Ever thought on integrating a cashu.me wallet?

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b OP 3h

What's cashu? Cash University? (I'm kidding. Yes, we plan to add ecash wallets. :))

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bitter 3h

iris.to is simply iframing it ;)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 3h

I think we can do better

20 sats \ 2 replies \ @Bell_curve 4h

Partner with ZBD would be awesome!

@StackerSports will you accept cowboy credit like Calgary stampede?

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @StackerSports 3h

Yee haw. Wonder if we will need a sats pool and a cowboy credit pool.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 3h

We hope to do it assuming we can segregate the data collection, surveillance, payment limits, geofencing, etc from the rest of the app.

We just want to be non-custodial-first.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Skipper 4h

What happens to the sats in my SN wallet on Jan. 3rd?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 4h

Nothing. The sats in your SN wallet will remain available to withdraw.

16 sats \ 1 reply \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 4h

When looking at a post, will the zaps and cowboy credits given to it be combined into one number in the top line (so "200 sats \ 1 reply \ @ username")? Or will they be separated?

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 4h

They will be combined into one number. You can get the breakdown on hover or by clicking on ... > details. Your zap notifications will, without hover or clicking, say "your item stacked 1,000 sats and 400 CCs".

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cyphercosmo 4h

Can you please explain the technical solution?

I understand currently the wallets are generated and kept by SN, this comes at a risk and responsibilities, so I believe it's changing so that the only sats SN receives are for payment of its services, everything else will be automatically routed between user's wallets.