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Comment by gbaygon | Hacker News Reader

have you heard of lightning network?

The only problem with LN is that is actively requires an internet connection. Wherein Bitcoin could be done offline similarly to a Card Imprinter

lightning is a reimplementation of a part of visa, caching for response time and still recording on a blockchain, no?

reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule

It's an alternative payment network, implemented as a bitcoin layer 2. You can argue that it's somewhat centralized, but not as much as Visa.

No, that is not how lightning works.

How is it essentially different?

Visa transactions can be reversed, Lightning transactions can not.

Bit a of an apple to oranges comparison anyways but that's the biggest difference.

Where do you actually use lightning? Does it work for you most of the time?

Well I've actually paid for street food using lightning, and also use it regularly it to send money to my family using Strike. It's instant and practically free.

So FedNow instant payments? If one has to choose between central finance with regulations, protections, and recourse and cryptofolks running DeFI with zero recourse, which is a financial participant more likely to choose?

https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about....

Just imagine you're not in your cushy first world country and that question answers itself.

Sure, crypto might be useful in a few backwater or failing nation states. In all other situations, it’s a dumpster fire being put forth as a solution when there are other superior options.

China, the US, or Europe could even offer digital wallets to individuals in those countries if they could get KYC worked out. Venezuelans use USD via Zelle for example, not crypto.

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/06/16/venezuela-is-a-t...

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