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> There is open market competition for these third-parties.

Like banks?

> The system is fully trustless

Except for those third-parties, you mean? The people running the Lightning network are essential to this system functioning and very, very few people won’t be fully reliant on a bank to store their Bitcoin — especially after the first time someone makes the news for losing their wallet.




> Except for those third-parties, you mean?

The third-party can't steal your Bitcoins. Assuming your node is online 24/7, you can verifiably cash out your Bitcoin on the blockchain at any time.

The third-party doesn't hold your Bitcoin– both parties can close the channel and cash out, again without any trust.

Your Bitcoins can't be stolen by a third-party, unless you and your watchtower fail to broadcast a transaction with proof there was a channel transfer.

I read watchtowers are used to keep third-parties honest when nodes aren't online 24/7. https://blog.bitmex.com/lightning-network-part-4-all-adopt-t... They don't hold your keys.


That sounds like a lot of infrastructure which you need to operate to avoid trusting your back. Do we have any reason to think the average Salvadoran wants to do that? If not, it’s not exactly realizing the sales pitch.


Watchtowers are third-parties that allow your node to go offline.

Bitcoin has lax liveness requirements unlike other networks. cough cough Ethereum 2.0 PoS




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