This Kilian from Boltz, I'm the typing intern for this AMA but got my two Co-Founders Michael & Karl with me. So go ahead and ask us anything!
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This Kilian from Boltz, I'm the typing intern for this AMA but got my two Co-Founders Michael & Karl with me. So go ahead and ask us anything!
Do you have an opinion on liquidity ads?
It is certainly great for bootstrapping a new node, but in our case we never used liquidity ads as, probably due to the service we are offering via our Lightning nodes, we got enough channels being opened to us.
What was the hardest part of building Boltz and is it still the same thing?
Operations at scale.
Things change drastically with scale, but the underlying problems are kinda the same.
It's still the hardest thing we do every day: making sure our service is stable, managing our liquidity, debugging Lightning issues, handling support. It's tough but we love it at the same time 🧡
It's A LOT harder than it looks.
Hi Kilian! Thanks for hosting this AMA.
My first question is about centralization. Now that a lot of new products have been released that rely on Boltz for their basic functionality, it raises concerns of there being a single point of failure should these swap services become temporarily or permanently unavailable, or outright banned in certain jurisdictions. What's being done to decrease that type of risk?
Good question! But we believe we have a good answer for that: Boltz's code is open source, including the backend. By now there is not only us, but also some other services running our backend. If we go offline, service quality degrades, you don't like our fees or anything else, just switch the domain and use another service. More details available here: https://x.com/kilrau/status/1860325861880172934
Thanks, Killian, as always! We wish Aqua, Bull etc would allow provider's choice in the settings...
Of course! Talk to them!
https://xcancel.com/kilrau/status/1860325861880172934
just use https://swapmarket.github.io/ FUCK JURISDICTIONS! Why people nowadays are so fucking pussies and obey the fictional "laws" ? https://postimg.cc/XGVpsmXC
Swapmarkets is great!
That's why Boltz sucks! Because Boltz follow the "regulated" thing...
It looks like they use Boltz for some of their swaps.
Swapmarket is a fork of our web app that let's you switch swap providers, so you have more choices, not only the official Boltz backend:
Would you use middleway, eldamar or actually boltz in swapmarket github Darth?
You're doing a great job guys, I love your service. What are your plans/thoughts on other chains, Lightning Assets (USDT?)? Other topic is a decentralized liquidity/intents market, what do think about it, could Boltz possibly move in this direction?
We are watching the development of Taproot Assets closely, but do not plan to offer direct Bitcoin / USDT swaps. You can read more about our technical concerns here: https://blog.breez.technology/usdt-on-lightning-the-good-the-bad-and-the-unknown-aefc3aaf6999
Doesn't mean that we can't offer a user-friendly way to swap between Lightning and USDT. Can't disclose details today, but we might be cooking something in that regard 😏
FUCKING FIAT MAXI! FUCK YOU!
Are you drunk dude?
I don't have any burning questions - just want to say thank you for having an awesome service that does exactly what it's supposed to do! Appreciate y'all, and keep up the great work!
🧡
What's something you believe about swaps that almost no one agrees with you on?
That they should be atomic!
Wait, are they not?
Meant that most other swap platforms out there call it "swap" even though swaps are not atomic (and thus custodial).
true!
When you will dump Tether and Liquid crap ? Boltz should be only LN <--> onchain. ALL THE REST IS TOTAL CRAP AND MISLEADING NOOBS ! Listing Tether and Liquid is literally supporting shitcoins!
We don't offer swaps involving Tether and with regards to Liquid's L-BTC, well it simply enables use cases that are not possible with onchain Bitcoin. But we see your point that Liquid doesn't have the same properties as Lightning as it's not featuring unilateral exit.
We can certainly explore ways to help users understand trade-offs better, similar to how https://www.bitcoinlayers.org does.
Also, the new layers we are working on do feature unilateral exit and we are very excited about the use cases one can build with it. Namely with Ark.
Boltz will implement the shitcoin Tether... @remindme in 1 year
Ark without LN is totally horseshit. It have no use case without LN. Please explain.
Well you came to the right place. We are working on doing exactly that - combining Ark with LN 🔥
In other words... FUCK BOLTZ.
That is for clueless normies that eat all the shit they see...
Ark without LN is FUCKED. Stop living in a dream... So "selling"· Ark as alternative to LN is really dumb and misleading
You didn't even get the meme
I got it. I just wanted to add more stuff to my previous comment.
You told me my humor is so weird not even I get it, remember? So how can you be sure you got it? lol
Why would Ark be without LN? Ark server becomes your LN custodial wallet and will pay your invoices. The only difference from Cashus is that you can unilateraly exit to onchain.
What is Ark? I'm a newbie and try to avoid anything bad about BTC, but I like to check, learn about it, before avoiding it.
Ark is not a "bad" thing for BTC. But also doesn't fix things or scale more. IMHO we already have tools that are not 100% used... but people like to divert noobs attention to things that are incentives for their own business model.
Always keep in mind this:
https://postimg.cc/G8Bj9mFM
I understand. In a way, I have been skeptical about proposals from companies that don't seem focused on the core of bitcoin. Thanks for responding.
Is it true that boltz blacklists some onchain addresses?
Tl;dr: yes. The goal is to not "break compatibility" with regulated entities like major exchanges which our users deposit to. More: #926959
https://postimg.cc/MfnJRVBS
FUCKING SLAVES OBEYING RULES
then fuck boltz it's a fiat service like any other.
Appreciate the transparency.
Do you think it's possible to run a real world company (like one with a legal entity, runs payroll etc) without eventually needing to bend the knee in this way?
Perhaps we have just not worked hard enough on innovative models that lets you both run a company and also not censor transactions. Not sure if that's possible though.
We run a real world company with a legal entity.
This was a very pragmatic business decision. We were swamped with support tickets users reporting "Exchange A/B/C froze my account because I used onchain Bitcoin from a Boltz swap". We had to act to not make Boltz incompatible with regulated services.
Also: Boltz is not a privacy tool. Boltz is a tool to (atomically) swap between different Bitcoin layers. We respect users privacy by not requiring more data than strictly necessary to execute the swap, but Boltz is not to be confused with technologies that are meant to enhance your privacy, like coinjoins.
Do you think you'll ever blacklist conjoined UTXO's?
They will comply with whatever is required from a regulatory perspective in the jurisdictions they operate in. So I think the question is whether coinjoins could ever become illegal
Makes sense. Do you have a warrant canary or can you make a statement about log retention policy / periods?
Very good point @ not enhancing privacy.
https://canary.boltz.exchange, also check https://boltz.exchange/privacy. "Assume we keep all data we have forever" - you can't and shouldn't trust us if we said otherwise.
that's castration not transparency.
Use another swap provider running Boltz backend that handles things differently via https://swapmarket.github.io
Or even better: launch your own swap service! All our code is Open Source: https://github.com/BoltzExchange.
Complaining doesn't change things, go and launch something! 🙌
What are you doing to address the speed of swaps? In real-world testing I've seen a Lightning <> Liquid swap take around 30 seconds, in some cases longer. This is a major friction point for retail. Tap-to-pay customers and merchants are expecting a near-instant payment confirmation, and when they have to sit there awkwardly waiting for a payment to be accepted, it can cause anxiety and disillusionment.
100%. We feel the same as we use Boltz-powered wallets ourselves as daily drivers. We recently did some investigation with Bull Bitcoin and turns out much of the delay is on client side. So we are working with implementations to get these down. There is no technical reason why a Boltz Liquid swap for a merchant payment shouldn't complete end to end in sth like 5 seconds end to end.
How do you use this as a merchant?
Can I accept LN payments on a website and have Boltz seamlessly convert it to an on-chain payment?
Absolutely, we got a BTCPay plugin that does exactly that. Read more about it here: https://blog.boltz.exchange/p/launching-the-boltz-btcpay-plugin (ignore the "Beta", it's a stable product by now).
Excellent news.
Thanks for sharing. I think this solves an issue I have had with receiving payments via BTC pay server for a LONG time.
So, I gave this a closer look and I think my biggest issue is running BTCPay server.
Is there any chance that this can somehow be integrated with ZapRite or made into a Wordpress plugin so I can just offer lightning payments at checkout and receive all payments into my on-chain wallet?
We should resume our zaprite integration talk @john
Please do.
What I need more than anything is the ability to accept lightning on a Wordpress WooCommerce site. BTCPay Server requires a bit more technical expertise than the average user has. If ZapRite + Boltz could solve this problem for me and bitcoiners around the world, I would gladly pay the $25/month for their service.
AFAICT, Boltz is the best tool out there for a simple submarine swap into on-chain sats with a simple UI.
How can we integrate @boltz into @zaprite, @john? I think that is a piece of magic the bitcoin space is missing.
Yes, let's catch up soon and discuss!
We discussed (and shipped) that, here you go @Jon_Hodl: https://nitter.net/Boltzhq/status/1927025154665632246
Looks promising.
Does Breez use Boltz for swaps?
You are a total loser if you are fooled to use Liquid crap.
How can one create a crypto wallet like Trust Wallet from the scratch?
I guess this is about creating a Boltz-powered wallet from scratch? Answer: Fork https://github.com/breez/misty-breez and take it from there.
Each morning we are born again and What we do today is what matters most, have a blissful day guys and don't stop stay strong.
First question! Where're you from @boltz, I kinda like you.
Second! How do stack more sats than you? Mind you I'm lazy. 😂
Where do you see Boltz in relation to future e-cash?
Ecash as in Chaumian Ecash? No plans so far.
Curious to understand how Boltz makes money? Is it just through fees or are there other areas to generate capital behind the scenes? And if so how profitable or close to break even are y’all?
We take a cut for each swap. Our Web App exposes this as "Boltz Fee" which ranges from 0.1% to 0.5% depending on layer and direction.
Just the fees.
We are profitable. And no VC capital/external investors involved.
Wow congrats guys.👏👏👏
I've seen you mention in another comment that Boltz isn't a privacy tool. However, for people swapping out to on-chain via lightning, what sort of exposure do they face? Seems like a pretty good way to lose the on-chain association with the UTXO you eventually end up with.
For the public observer, yes. But always consider that we, Boltz, do have the association.
The exposure is that we might be forced by law enforcement to reveal the association between two payments of a swap. This didn't happen so far and we expect El Salvador authorities to only require this for serious crime, but it might in future and we'll have to comply, see https://boltz.exchange/privacy.
That all being said, sending Lightning to Boltz provides very decent privacy and we don't have a way to tell where a payment came from. That's the sender privacy part. With Bolt12 and blinded paths receiver privacy on LIghtning is getting a massive boost too and we are working together with the team at Breez to ship something very soon that makes Boltz fully Bolt12 compatible. Here the main PR that was merged just 3 days ago: https://github.com/BoltzExchange/boltz-backend/pull/859
Tl;dr: using Lightning is a very good idea as it doesn't reveal origin and with Bolt12 blinded paths neither destination to us and thus there is nothing much to reveal in the first place ✌️
Halve the fees on sundays when mempool is empty?
But but... we do that already! Network fees, which are charged separately from our Boltz fee, automatically adjust based on the mempool situation. Dirt cheap right now!
Does Electrum use Boltz for their atomic swaps?
Nope, they are rolling their own implementation.
Yo, what do you think differentiates you from your competitors? What excites you most about the next year?
Pragmatism. We focus on shipping features that are real-world useful for Bitcoiners.
The sheer endless possibility of new use cases we can build with new Bitcoin Layers launching.
Great Stuff, forward!
Typing intern? That a thing?
Made it up, now it's a thing ;)
How do you feel about that?
Great meme, but luckily we are not alone. There are more entities running Boltz backends by now (see e.g. https://swapmarket.github.io/) and then there is Acinq/Phoenix, Zeus and many more all build very solid payment infrastructure.
What’s your take on Nostr and integrating Boltz with it in some way?
We will significantly lower liquid swap amounts soon to enable Nostr zaps with it, but apart from that no concrete plans of an integration. But open for ideas!
I love boltz!! It’s always worked every time I used it. So thankful for you and the team.
So what is on the development roadmap? Are you guys profitable? Any chance you do a collaboration with Zeus wallet?
We are working on an Ark integration, which is probably the most significant thing we'll launch this year. Yes, we are profitable and we actually worked with Evan and the team to get sth up for them, but leaving it to them to announce ✌️
Are there any future plans for Boltz Pro?
More automation options, improve the manual option via https://pro.boltz.exchange. And also make pro swaps useful with e.g. https://github.com/BoltzExchange/boltz-backend/issues/197
What are the Bitcoin books you'd recommend?
Start with "21 Lessons: What I've Learned from Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole" for a shorter intro and with "The Bitcoin Standard" for rethinking "money". Another great choice (albeit not a Bitcoin book) is "The Sovereign Individual".
For now 😈 Keep an eye peeled on what is brewing in the kitchen https://github.com/el-tor
Aweseome - starred!
You will never get a clear response to that Q because otherwise everybody will start a swap service. It's all about liquidity economics. Nobody will give you the "secret" recipe.
What a steak doneness do you prefer?
anything over 60C is disrespecting the steak
How do you envision the Bitcoin and lightning landscape for India? What needs to be done to get better adoption in the subcontinent?
Local acceptance, local community-driven lightning wallets. True circular economies that showcase what's possible just like Bitcoin Jungle in Costa Rica or Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador (both launching their own wallets btw)!
This is short and sweet answer. Sooo thanks. 🙏🙏
India is full of shitcoiners (like you)
https://video.nostr.build/17da2579e9f52f912c1172f16d4bc06123fab3bf9800e6bfa6aae45871a0672e.mp4
Long live the King!
lol
what king? king of nothing?
swap king! Ahah
no. Boltz is not the "swap king" as many think. Is just an illusion. Is the swap for losers.ç There are other ways to swap LN<-->onchain.
Who's the king of those swaps?
no king
Prince?
Who is the smartest person you've ever met?
Tough one. We are still discussing about it.
why are you asking this useless question to all AMAs? "smartest" person IRL is really dumb.
What's the most surprising thing you've learned building boltz?
People tend to not open their wallet when receiving a payment lol
When I expect to receive money in a particular moment, why wouldn't you look at the receiving wallet? But this was an issue haunting us, we actually had a canned response "Please open Phoenix" at some point. Now this is luckily largely fixed with mobile notifications.
again same question for all AMAs? pathetic