LTB #424 What Are Lightning Wallets Doing to Help Onboard New Users?

<p><em>The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss Lightning Network technology and two innovative approaches at the wallet level which simplify the new-user experience at a tangible, but seemingly minimal cost.</em></p> <p>In today's podcast we zero in on the challenge of "Channel Management", an until-recently-mandatory and manually-managed part of connecting to and utilizing the still-nascent Lightning Network.</p> <p>A little context: The way Andreas (someone already using Lightning) sends a payment to Stephanie through Lightning is either through a direct channel to her or through a route of hops that can eventually reach Stephanie.</p> <p>But if a user is brand new to the Lightning network, how do they go about receiving their first payment? - This question has been answered by both ZAP wallet and Phoenix wallet, using different techniques.</p> <p><em>This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by&nbsp;</em><a href="https://brave.com/ltb" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><em>Brave.com</em></a><em>,&nbsp;</em><a href="http://etoro.ltbshow.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><em>eToro.com</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://purse.io/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><em>Purse.io</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p><em>Lightning Topic Notes:</em></p> <p><a href="https://phoenix.acinq.co/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Phoenix</strong></a> wallet is made by ACINQ, the makers of Eclair wallet. Eclair offers more advanced/technical users a deeper look behind the hood of the inner workings with channel management being a manual operation.</p> <p>With Phoenix, ACINQ has taken this away, with the aim of it being a more user friendly wallet for the end user - A more Mom and Pop style wallet.</p> <p>When Stephanie, a new user of Phoenix wants to be paid by Andreas, she will create an invoice on her phone, just like any other wallet. Andreas will then scan that QR code, send the payment,