Bitcoin 2023 on Jamie Thingelstad

Bitcoin Lightning: Fun, Fast, and Free-ish

Sun, 21 May 2023 16:01:49 -0500

I’ve been casually investigating Bitcoin Lightning for a while. Lightning is a Layer 2 network on-top of Bitcoin and promises nearly free instantaneous transactions. Apps like Strike and Cash support Lightning, but I got frustrated with them because it wasn’t clear where Lightning was doing the work. Perhaps a good thing for normal use, but not great for learning the tech.

As Bitcoin 2023 approached one of the objectives I had was to get first-hand experience with Lightning. ⚡️ I did some digging before getting to Miami and had Wallet of Satoshi installed, and via Strike transferred 100,000 or so Satoshis.

Before going further, a Satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin and it is named after the creator of Bitcoin. 1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshis. At current market 1 Satoshi is worth $0.00027, and $0.01 is worth 37 Satoshis. Satoshis are often referred to as “Sats”. Sometimes people will say “Stacking Sats” which is to imply slowly building value in Bitcoin with small dollar purchases.

First Transaction

We arrived at the Miami Beach Convention Center early on Friday and desperately needed coffee. We queued up and noticed that they (and we would realize all vendors here) had IBEX terminals to accept Bitcoin payment using Lightning.

A little background, in 2015 I had gone on a mission to buy something with Bitcoin in Minneapolis. I couldn’t find any merchant selling anything that would accept Bitcoin. I’ve long felt that Bitcoin is a great store of value, but have many times said that you would never use Bitcoin for day-to-day purchases. Transaction fees are high, and block times are not deterministic so you can’t confirm payment immediately.

Lightning proved me totally wrong. Thanks to Kerry for whipping out his phone to catch my very first Lightning purchase for some coffees and empanadas on video.

The payment is instantaneous, and the fees are nearly free. The merchant put in the total amount I owed on their device, it generated a Lightning “invoice” that I scanned with my wallet, and after confirming payment it was done in a flash.

Amazing. 🤩

Nostr & Damus

So how is it that I showed up in Miami with Wallet of Satoshi setup and ready to make Lightning transactions?

I knew Nostr was particularly popular in the Bitcoin world and thought it may be a good way to communicate at the event.
Some micro.blog folks were playing around in Nostr using Damus on iOS, and Damus looked very polished.
Damus connects with Lightning to allow “Zaps” on posts so you can “zap” some amount of Satoshis to other peoples posts.

Setup was pretty simple actually. I downloaded Damus and it walked be through getting my Nostr public and private keys setup. Damus had a list of Lightning wallets that worked with it and Wallet of Satoshi was the best rated in the App Store. And then I stumbled a bit but finally figured out how to send some Satoshis from Strike to Wallet of Satoshi.

Off to the races! 🏇⚡️

This is the first application experience I’ve ever used where micropayments really work.

This is truly exciting to me as a potential way to fix the Original Sin of the Internet — building everything off of a surveillance economy funded by advertising! Traditionally micropayments are far too cumbersome to work. Zaps powered with Bitcoin Lightning are completely friction free.

At the show Damus was selling (for 27,800 Sats) “Zap Me” buttons with an embedded NFC chip. When you bought it they associated the chip with your profile so people could tap the button with their phone and automatically be brought to your profile where they could send you a Zap! ⚡️

PS: I’m planning to add Lightning options to thingelstad.com and the Weekly Thing to encourage folks to experiment.

Finally, Lightning also brings some functionality to Bitcoin that I’ve enjoyed for a long time with Ethereum. You can use your Lightning wallet to authenticate with a service, as well as signing messages.

Over dinner I was able to authenticate and provision a Bitcoin mining unit just by signing in with Lightning.

Moving beyond passwords, and digital signatures to prove validity of content, are going to increase in significance over time and it is great to see Lightning bring that capability to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

During the 2 days of Bitcoin 2023 I relied almost exclusively on Bitcoin to pay for lunches, coffees, and anything else I wanted. I also took the opportunity to send Satoshis to some of the speakers and people that I met at the event. It was incredible. It gave me all the privacy and benefit of cash, along with all the benefit of digital money.

So my earlier assertion that Bitcoin is a store-of-value but not useful for day to day purchases? Wrong.

In fact I’m on the hunt to get a Lightning coin machine like the one at the event to have in my house. I’d love to be able to have people come over and get their first Bitcoin experience by installing a free Lightning Wallet, putting a quarter in a box and scanning a QR code to leave with 1,000 satoshis! 🥳

Sun, 21 May 2023 11:51:30 -0500

I got my Blockclock Mini at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami and have it setup at my desk. I’ve wanted one of these for a while and now I can remember the conference with it.

My QR Codes

Sun, 21 May 2023 09:07:33 -0500

At Bitcoin 2023 we were talking with some folks from New York at our table while enjoying some Cuban chicken and rice. At the end of the conversation one of the guys showed everyone his phone with a QR code for his LinkedIn profile so we could connect. Everyone loved it — very easy.

I’d like to be able to do that, and I know Shortcuts makes it very easy to do. So I whipped up My QR Codes. Tap on that and it should allow you to add that to Shortcuts. The shortcut is very simple, and you will want to modify the Dictionary at the very top with your own list of links and names.

After you have customized it, add it to your Home Screen using the share function and you have a super simple way to share your most common links with people.

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

Sun, 21 May 2023 05:37:32 -0500

Good morning Miami! Learned a lot and enjoyed Bitcoin 2023. Heading home this morning. 🛫

Sat, 20 May 2023 15:53:10 -0500

Clever — Fiat House of Cards. 🃏

Sat, 20 May 2023 15:43:27 -0500

The final session for Bitcoin 2023 on Nakamoto Stage “The Biggest Bulls” with Matt Odell, Adam Back (Blockstream), and Jack Mallers (Strike). 🐂

Sat, 20 May 2023 15:15:32 -0500

Zoltan Pozsar (Credit Suisse) & Arthur Hayes (100x Group) on Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin 2023 on “New Monetary Order”.

Sat, 20 May 2023 15:11:18 -0500

Good macro session “Steady Lads” at Bitcoin 2023 with Mark Moss, Lyn Alden, and Preston Posh.

Sat, 20 May 2023 14:56:17 -0500

Good session on “Bitcoin Core Maintainers & the Path Forward” with Gloria Zhao, Niftynei, and Jess Jonas moderated by Steve Meyers at Bitcoin 2023. I appreciated three things:

Loved that this was an all women panel!
Great call out to help fund Bitcoin Core development via Brink. Donate!
Call to action for Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund. Donate!

Really great! 🙌

Sat, 20 May 2023 14:50:36 -0500

Interesting technical solutions to identity and privacy in the “Web 5: Open to Build” session with Daniel Buchner at Bitcoin 2023.

Sat, 20 May 2023 14:42:38 -0500

The Bitcoin Mining Museum was a fun time. The USB miners were a crazy flashback. And the very first mining rig, the Avalon1. 🤩

Sat, 20 May 2023 13:29:07 -0500

Apparently I’m at the age where I have to hang my sunglasses and my readers from my shirt. 😎🤓

Sat, 20 May 2023 10:58:28 -0500

The Art Gallery at Bitcoin 2023 is a cool experience with a lot of interesting art.

Worlds Smallest Bitcoin Hobby ATM

Sat, 20 May 2023 09:46:39 -0500

This Bitcoin ATM is one of my favorite things I’ve seen at Bitcoin 2023. You put coins in the device, I put 3 pennies. You tap the screen and it gives you a Lightning code to scan and I got 99 sats in my wallet. 🤩

Update (May 23):

I did some digging and found that “Tortcher” is the one who made this awesome device. I found him online and was excited to see that he is selling the World’s Smallest Bitcoin Hobby ATM. I’ve ordered the Multi-ATM and can’t wait to show people how fun, easy, and fast Bitcoin and Lightning can be with it! 🤩⚡️ Oh yeah, and Tortcher lives in the Twin Cities area — small world! The code is on GitHub as well.

Sat, 20 May 2023 09:25:43 -0500

Hot tub heated by a Bitcoin miner.

Fri, 19 May 2023 17:16:33 -0500

Google Cloud & Voltage party at Backyard.

Fri, 19 May 2023 17:15:15 -0500

Jack Mallers of Strike closed out Friday at Bitcoin 2023 with massive announcement of global expansion and Lightning improvements. ⚡️

Fri, 19 May 2023 14:35:53 -0500

Excited to see Arthur Hayes and Michael Lewis on stage at Bitcoin 2023.

Fri, 19 May 2023 13:50:50 -0500

Lyn Alden taking Nakamoto Stage with Natalie Smolenski at Bitcoin 2023 sharing deep financial insights.

Fri, 19 May 2023 12:14:36 -0500

Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy with Bill Miller IV on Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin 2023.

“The universal frequent flyer mile is the Satoshi.” Interesting concept of using Sats to enable very different systems.

Fri, 19 May 2023 11:41:13 -0500

Got a signed book from Bobby Lee of Ballet Crypto.

Fri, 19 May 2023 10:28:22 -0500

Connected with Vlad Stan of LNBits after the Nostr session and got one of the DIY signing kits he was sharing. Love a group huddled around a laptop with devices geeking out.

Fri, 19 May 2023 10:25:17 -0500

Got to meet Will Casarin, developer of Damus, after the Nostr session.

Fri, 19 May 2023 09:36:03 -0500

“The Future of the Creator Economy” session with Layah Heilpern and Zuby moderated by Justin Rezvani on Nakamato Stage at Bitcoin 2023.

Fri, 19 May 2023 09:27:32 -0500

Great session “Nostr vs. Everything” with Will Casarin, Vlad Stan, and Pablo Fernandez moderated by Rockstar Dev at Bitcoin 2023.

Fri, 19 May 2023 08:19:09 -0500

Hector, Kerry, and I kicking off the day at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami!

Thu, 18 May 2023 21:54:59 -0500

Departing for Bitcoin 2023 in Miami Beach! Meeting up with Hector there.

Thu, 18 May 2023 20:58:47 -0500

Having free, and reasonably performant WiFi on flights is a real game changer. Paired with a small device like an iPad with a good keyboard it is very workable.

Thu, 18 May 2023 10:40:45 -0500

POAP 6632836 at You've met Jamie Thingelstad at Bitcoin 2023.

Thu, 18 May 2023 10:40:05 -0500