The lightning experiment, or LN is a shitcoin
Back in 2020, I was casually reading the logs one morning when Joe Rodgers (WoT:joerodgers), Bitcoin Magazine alumni, decided to pop into chat and link a rss aggregator "powered by Lightning" for those assembled to view. Up to this point I had never touched a single satoshi powered by it so the conversation started thus:
shinohai: I had nfi anyone was even using Lightning Network. Still trying to solve 30 cent problems instead of $3000 ones I guess. asciilifeform: shinohai: 99% of the work (if can dare to use word 'work'...) of a shitcoin perpetrator, is to create a synthetic appearance of 'use' asciilifeform: is how they get it into goxes, pump up exch rate, etc joerodgers: Are you suggesting LN is a shitcoin? asciilifeform: joerodgers: it is. albeit with slightly more than the usual amt of 'bitcoin flavouring' added asciilifeform: joerodgers: if anything, it's the most cynically fraudulent type of shitcoin, in that it purports to be equivalent somehow to actual bitcoin (y'know, the kind where tx follows the 2009 format, and gets mined into actual blocks..) asciilifeform: while in actuality, it ain't joerodgers: Ok, thanks for sharing. asciilifeform: this isn't some kinda mega-revelation. if you read the docs, will become entirely clear what it is joerodgers: I need to read the LN docs to see where it explains this asciilifeform: in other lulz . shinohai: joerodgers: https://lightning.network/docs/ "whereby transactions are sent over a network of micropayment channels ... whose transfer of value occurs off-blockchain." joerodgers: Are you opposed to any development off the main chain? No L2/sidechains? shinohai: Kinda defeats the purpose of a blockchain, neh? shinohai: lel asciilifeform "Plox to mirror it FOR ME" asciilifeform: joerodgers: can't speak for other people, but i'm opposed to fraud. and folx who push a paypal-like item as 'equiv. of bitcoin' are committing fraud. joerodgers: It provides a trustless scaling solution? joerodgers: fair enough asciilifeform: joerodgers: somehow i was under the impression that you've eaten years of #t logs. and therefore familiar with the favourite strategy of the enemy over past decade, i.e. pushing baroque crocks of shit under banner of 'scale bitcoin' joerodgers: Paypal takes custody of your funds and asks for KYC, I don't see how LN is that.
The conversation carries on in the logs, which you can read here but I decided to go slum it with the LN evangelists on twitter/telegram and see what they were up to. My curiosity often leads me to filthy places what can I say?
I shan't bore folks with the details of all the services and things I tried but here's the tl;dr:
- It bears a remarkable similarity to things we've seen before.
- Using it will have you dancing in the streets for nickels. People will send you $1 worth of sats for maxint work and think they changed your life somehow.
- Poor design choices make it feel like the Rube Goldberg version of a spreadsheet.
- If you enjoy fun-filled evenings sifting amongst the couch cushions for loose change, then this is the system for you.
How much of the network is actually using Lightning? Statistics site 1ml.com shows that there are currently around 4595 BTC in LN channels, or about 0.0219% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. Indeed it's still a micro economy at this stage of development and from my perspective is just an ouroboros, as mentioned above.
And thus ends my participation in the Lightning experiment - I'll just stick to actual Bitcoin (address in footer if you are so inclined!) for now, thank you very much. I've deleted all LN apps from my device that were used during this exercise but on the off-chance someone happens to send me something on Telegram, I'll likely automatically send it back. You probably need that ten cents more than me.
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that some folx refuse to read the links in this piece and would rather make angry NPC noises instead. I'll break out the crayons for these people. Here's a simple flowchart:
That's all folks!
Robinhood falls along with other fiat markets
On the heels of a previous outage, robinhood customers reported widespread issues again this morning shortly after markets opened. Monday started off poorly for fiat markets, with reports of trading halts of 15 Minutes or more after the S&P 500 tanked 7% rapidly in early morning trading.
Meanwhile at MPEX storm clouds brew with some users hoping to get their coins off the exchange before the 2020 Lardship list is published.
