Square is currently rolling out the ability for merchants to accept Bitcoin on their terminals.
If paid sites started accepting bitcoin, it would definitely spur wider adoption.
How much energy is the "right" amount?
How does that compare to the amount of energy used for paper and coin?
Can any amount be more than the "right" amount as long as the cost of the energy is willing borne by the entities conducting the transaction?
I also know a guy who recently installed a dummy load in a thermal power plant which they switch on when they can’t give the power to the network due to overcapacity, as they can’t just switch off the plant willy nilly.
The point is, in a grid with lots of renewables in it not only there’s a lot of stray energy that can be captured, but a flexible load that can be switched on/off in milliseconds is actually hugely valuable if we’re to have stable grids.
They can be opened peer to peer, or hop between other channels, similar to dns routing
They are prefunded with a certain quantity of bitcoin that dictates the size of bitcoin that can move in that route at once - although smaller denominations can go through in rapid succession this just means more fees levied
All of this incentivizes a larger channel to be created by a well funded party, which can be coaxed into censoring transactions because they are a payment processor or institutional service. Likely an incumbent such as Visa joining the lightning network as a victim of LN’s own success.
There are some mitigations built in and actively developed. We are 8 years deep into Lightning.
(Because this is a textual medium, I need to state explicitly that I don’t ask that in an adversial way, just want to have a conversation!)
Hell the whole reason why Steam got big is how FRICTIONLESS it made buying videogames.
Still people will go a long way for their porn fix so who knows?
