Latest Strikes 15 - Dec. 12th-18th 2022
A new LNBits release, a promising vision and builders keeping on building: that was Lightning last week. Read further to find out more, and remember: if you want to receive your weekly recap in your inbox before anyone else, all you have to do is subscribe. Ready? Steady. Go!
Ecosystem
Breez Raises $4.5M
Breez raised 4.5 million dollars in a seed round led by ego death capital and Entrée Capital, which will help Breez realize it's ambitious vision of a trustless yet frictionless mobile Lightning experience for all users.
The focal point of Breez's vision is that users should be able to spend and use their money in the least-friction way - that is, P2P. Middle men and regulators introduce a kind of friction that Lightning removes, but non-custodial Lightning (eg. the only Lightning implementation safe from middle men and regulators intrusion) comes with it's own drag forces.
That's what Breez will be trying to address though the combination of the Breez SDK and the Greenlight API, allowing app creators to easily integrate Lightning payments into their apps in a non-custodial way. The big difference with the way Breez works today is that the Lightning node itself will not be in the phone anymore, but rather on a remote server. The private keys, however, remain on the user's phone, thus reducing the trust required and ensuring LSPs remain only LSPs - and do not become banks, with all the inherent risks and regulations.
Grants
The Human Rights Foundation dropped a 2 million sats gift to support Bitcoin development, education and communities. Lightning-wise, it includes a $25,000 grant to Dusty for his work on splicing.
Sats Streaming Now Avaible In Podverse (Beta)
Podcast player Podverse launched (still experimental) support for Value for Value in the app. You can now send sats to your favorite shows, by enabling the feature and connecting your Podverse app to a Lightning wallet (right now, only Alby is supported, thanks to their great API).
For now, you can "only" send Boosts and Boostagrams, which are one time payments. In other words, you can't really automatically stream sats every minute just yet, but rather send a payment from time to time to show your appreciation or send feedback to the podcaster, without leaving the podcasting app.
If you already have an Alby account, you can use it in Podverse by logging in (for example using LNURL-Auth). Please note that an Alby account is a custodial wallet of its own, it's different from using Alby connected to your node or an LNBits instance, for example.
Lucent Labs Make You Love Bitcoin Cash Cache
Lucent Labs announced two new tools to make the life of Bitcoin and Lightning operators easier: Bolt Node and Bitcoin Cache.
Bolt Node appeals to Bitcoin/Lightning operators running huge infrastructure at scale, and allow them to automate deployments using templates. From what I understand, it looks a bit like Ansible, but specialized in Bitcoin infrastructure deployment.
Bitcoin Cache is a "secure bitcoin treasury infrastructure", helping Lucent Labs's customers secure their organization's private keys, create proof of reserves or recover funds (if the worst was to happen).
Wallets & Tools
Alby
Alby announced the integration of MoonPay into its browser extension, allowing users to top up their Alby accounts with their dirty fiat.
Last week, Bumi also shared a sneak peek showing how you can build a channel management frontend in the browser using Alby and the power of webln. Kinda cool, and reminded me of this demo they made of opening dual-funded channels directly from the browser.
Wider LNURL-Auth Usage
LNURL-Auth is going places! Geyser added it as an authentication mechanism, with the nice feature of being able to link multiple wallets to the same profile.
A LNURL-Auth plugin for Wordpress was also spotted in the wild, allowing users and readers to login to Wordpress from their Lightning wallet (or any app supporting LNURL-Auth).
New LNBits Release
A new version of LNBits was released introducing (among other things) a new Admin UI and superuser role (to manage one's LNBits instance Core settings), a new Cashu extension and a whole load of fixes and improvements!
Mostro
Last week my eyes were also caught by Mostro which tries to do to P2P Bitcoin trading on Lightning what nostr did to P2P communications (it actually uses nostr as a communication medium, so I believe the comparison isn't too far fetched).
Much like in nostr where people running clients connect to relays, people wanting to trade with others will connect to some Mostro instance, possibly their own, through a client. The Mostro instance serves as an escrow during the trade, and Mostro instances will compete to gain users (and hence, fees) in a reputation-based market. Interesting!
Closing Bit
Le Verbe est feu, creuset, et moule :
Il façonne et cuit, fond et désassemble,
Il étiole ou fragmente, sépare puis rassemble
Ces briques orangées que l'on trempe à la houle.