It’s happening! Lightning Network Wallet app just released on Google Play – God send for the third world!
Hello my fellow Steemians and Crypto investors,
Until yesterday, Bitcoin’s Lightning Network was mostly not very user friendly.
Even though a lot of advances have been made this year, most of it has been technical infrastructure building blocks, only available to highly skilled developers working at the command line level on Linux terminals.
Well, that all changed yesterday with the launching of the Eclair Wallet at Google Play’s Android store. This historic milestone signals a major step towards mainstream adoption of the Lightning Network since it makes it available for regular users.
“The Eclair Wallet is a next generation, Lightning-ready Bitcoin wallet. It can be used as a regular Bitcoin wallet, and can also connect to the Lightning Network for cheap and instant payments,” - Developer's app description on Google Play.
The forgotten and unbanked of this world stand to benefit the most
I believe that, in particular, this is very good news for the third world. People living on the first world are already privileged by a banking system that mostly works (though still slowly and barricaded), they have easy access to credit, money transferring apps etc.
It’s the other three billion people without any access to these tools but with $25 dollar Chinese cellphones on their pockets that stand to benefit the most from these new Bitcoin developments.
The Lightning Network continues growing steadily. It now boasts over 1300 nodes and counting.
A simple Android app that allows them to transfer money easily and with low fees anywhere in the world is a godsend for the unbanked. They can now be part of the world economy they have been excluded from for so long.
Old services like remittances and money transfers that charged ridiculous amounts in order to pay off (bribe) corrupt government officials will be mostly bypassed as soon as some smart guy realizes they can do it cheaper and more conveniently from their phone now and it spreads like wildfire.
I’m personally already seeing this phenomenon, since I have been helping my friends living in Cuba @cubadetodo and @paquetedecuba buy and hold their first crypto currencies and begin using Steemit as a blogging platform.
Their reaction has been very positive, especially because now in Cuba because there’s a lot of uncertainty with the two issued fiat currencies available: CUCs and CUPs. The government has been hinting one of them will go away but they are not telling anyone which one. In the past, the government has made similar moves, suddenly removing a currency from circulation and screwing millions of people’s savings in the process.
Bitcoin mainnet will be like Gold. Lightning Network will be like credit and debit cards today, but better
I believe that in the future Bitcoin proper will be used for large transfers, anything exceeding thousands or millions of dollars, for which paying high fees is justified. Just like physically moving huge amounts of Gold between countries today is expensive, moving millions in Bitcoin will incur relatively high fees. Of course, it will be much less expensive and cumbersome than moving physical Gold, that’s one of the main advantages of Crypto Currency!
On the other hand, Lightning Network will likely be more frequently used for day to day transactions, think credit cards and debit cards today, and for micropayments online, a whole new phenomenon that will change the internet as we know it, but that’s a subject for another post.
A bank, credit card, remittances, online store, micropayments app, a whole new way of life on your pocket. Image by Pixabay
A Testnet version of the Eclair Wallet app has already been available for some time on Google Play. If all you want to do for now is get a feel for it, you can use that version instead. Remember, this is still very new and there may be bugs and unforeseen issues yet.
You are not supposed to risk using too much money on the Lightning Network but why not play around with a few Satoshis? I'd say it’s definitely worth it to get a glimpse of the future!
So, what do you think? Will Bitcoin's Lightning Network bank the unbanked and revolutionize Finance?
Do you think mobile wallets like Eclair will be friendly enough for regular users?
Have you played with LN yet?
Do share your thoughts and with the Steemit community in the comments below!
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This is a great post. Thanks!
Thanks @bwells, following you now!
I hope this will solve the problem in scalability because we really need the faster transaction, especially to the poor countries, that way they can accelerate their economy rapidly.
LN payments make a lot of sense for frequent payments like your daily Starbucks coffee. So you open a channel with Starbucks, and then just do your regular purchases with almost 0 cost.
huge news for blockchain lovers.
Nice post. Lightning network is obviousely a huge development for cryptocurrency scaling and I'm glad you're covering it on Steem.
Expect some downvotes to start coming in from Operation Clean Trending, which has also targeted one of my posts.
Hi dhimmel,
Yep I see this guy @heimindanger gave himself a police badge and is now bullying his way around Steemit. I didn't know using promotion bots was such a thought crime and that the self appointed gestapo was in full force but now I know and knowledge is power. I understand the issue with bad quality posts but automatic downvoting without checking the content is really bad for Steemit too. Thanks for the heads up! Regards
The clean trending tool still allows usage of bid-bots up to 50% of the total value of your content. It's the spamming and getting trending mostly because of bots that is an issue, and you clearly know about it because you were doing it ;)
All good things must have an end... Be smart and use tools more appropriately and you will do fine... both of you ;)
Your theory is far from perfect.
I absolutely used bots, just like I told you I would.
It's serving the exact purpose I sought, visibility.
I not only provided a full disclaimer but also tagged my post #advertisedcontent
You came at me anyway.
My bot useage has yielded very organic results, as I assumed it would.
I may have got to trending with bots but I'm staying there because the content is legit and appreciated by the community.
Almost at a 50/50 rate.
I really wish you'd focus on shitposts and instead encourage good content creators to utilize these tools to help their visibility.
But...like all of us...you are entitled to do what you want here.
Welcome to the Wild West!
This is really about a monopoly (Steemit whales) kicking out the little guys like any other big corporation, they are protecting their interests. How else do you think this self appointed gestapo account manages to get $200-$700 for his crappy posts? It's a whale club, they vote among themselves and won't let the small fish play. The only thing you can do is power down and let these scammers fall on their own weight. I can't wait to see the prosecutions!
"50% of the total value of your content" how am I supposed to know what that is without running afoul of the self appointed gestapo?
I'm already doing fine, I'm powering down and dumping this whale club for good. Heck, I might even come up with a tool and big ass campaign for people to do the same, just like you did to protect your posts while green with envy...
See, you didn't do this out of your "love for Steemit", you are just protecting your post positions and that of your big whale friends. We are not stupid @heimindanger, you gotta let the little fish play too once in a while.
Are your posts so good quality that they deserve $200 to $700 payouts? Give me a break, you use your whale group for that, something a lot more questionable and damaging to the platform than using bots and that's the real problem with Steemit, it's a whale club.
Do you know if the @steemit guys, you know @dan and company, are aware of this "tool"?
Bitcoin mainnet will be gold and LN be like debit and credit card . There wont be any double spending here . Now we have digital gold and spendable method attached to it. No counterfeit or double spending , with same transparency. Way to the future.
A simple easy-to-use mobile wallet is EXACTLY what the unbanked need. This is where the need is greatest and so this is where mass adoption will come from.
Which makes me think, why isn't there a Steem mobile wallet app yet? Is it in the works or should developers from the community itself take matters into hands and build one themselves?
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I still can't really wrap my head around the LN and how off-chain transactions can be secure. Still, smart people seem to approve, so hopefully this is good.