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It's an awesome feature, but it's not a fix - Lightning requires a 24/7 online connection, which will also combine with several other pressures to strongly favo

It's an awesome feature, but it's not a fix - Lightning requires a 24/7 online connection, which will also combine with several other pressures to strongly favor central hubs, putting easily regulated payment processors back in change of who can spend money (a bad thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11944011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11944011). Plus it won't work (in the sense of saving blockchain space) for people who have few peers and tend to move money in one direction, e.g. a consumer connected to a "paypal"-like lightning service who makes purchases but doesn't sell online, this could be a significant portion of users. It's a great extension to Bitcoin, but it shouldn't be confused with what Bitcoin does.

onetallnerd 10y ago
No. You don't. It can be set to having to be on at least once a week, or trustlessly outsourcing the requirement.
- CookieMon 10y ago
  Bitcoin doesn't require weekly check-ins, but Good to know (thanks) - that's a less extreme requirement for Lightning. However, being online wasn't a main pressure for the potential problem of central hubs. (e.g. the large parked capital requirements acting as a barrier to entry, fees - if bitcoin is to be a low-volume settlement layer - plus people wanting to keep spending money consolidated (i.e. opening as few channels as possible) while still getting the benefit of complete payment connectivity)
- tomtomtom777 10y ago
  > trustlessly outsourcing the requirement Unless I missed something, outsourcing watching the blockchain cannot be called trustless; they need to know what to watch. If your watcher collaborates with your LN-hub, you are doomed. Here is my get-rich-quick-scheme: * Setup a big LN hub. * Setup a LN-watching service Then for each peer connected to both, I filter those that: * have a balance with <10% on my side * have an earlier balance with >90% on my side * haven't been seen for a week. For those, I submit the tx of the earlier balance. Sometimes I'll lose a bit but mostly I will gain more. Profit.

onetallnerd 10y ago

No. You don't. It can be set to having to be on at least once a week, or trustlessly outsourcing the requirement.

CookieMon 10y ago
Bitcoin doesn't require weekly check-ins, but Good to know (thanks) - that's a less extreme requirement for Lightning. However, being online wasn't a main pressure for the potential problem of central hubs. (e.g. the large parked capital requirements acting as a barrier to entry, fees - if bitcoin is to be a low-volume settlement layer - plus people wanting to keep spending money consolidated (i.e. opening as few channels as possible) while still getting the benefit of complete payment connectivity)
tomtomtom777 10y ago
> trustlessly outsourcing the requirement Unless I missed something, outsourcing watching the blockchain cannot be called trustless; they need to know what to watch. If your watcher collaborates with your LN-hub, you are doomed. Here is my get-rich-quick-scheme: * Setup a big LN hub. * Setup a LN-watching service Then for each peer connected to both, I filter those that: * have a balance with <10% on my side * have an earlier balance with >90% on my side * haven't been seen for a week. For those, I submit the tx of the earlier balance. Sometimes I'll lose a bit but mostly I will gain more. Profit.