Maybe you've been keeping up with the current developments in Bitcoin, maybe you've been too busy doing other work, but truthfully these developments are very important to the whole ecosystem and it would be a good thing for all of us to understand what precisely is going on with the second layer solutions.

Bluewallet.io

The last bull Run

It's been more than a year now, but it's still pretty fresh in my mind. As a matter of fact, I remember waiting 6 days for a transaction to confirm, and also remember having to pay 50 dollars or so for another to go through. It's without a doubt one of the main factors that made the bubble burst, the simple fact that cryptocurrencies where not ready for mass adoption.

Because of this particular conundrum, plenty of solutions have been proposed. The idea is quite simple: To find a way to scale, reduce costs and make the experience as simple as possible for the average user. How we get there, is precisely what people can't really seem to agree on, but it's interesting to see the developments on the space aiming at that very goal.

Funnily enough, the lightning network was already being developed back then, back in early 2018 I remember watching a video or two explaining it, but it was without a doubt something too complicated for the average user and it required a techie, like myself, to set it up. This was precisely the problem, and why I like many others believed that maybe it was not going to work after all.

In order for crypto's to take off, they need to be grandma friendly (don't know who coined the term, but I love it), and if they don't do this, if none of them do, then it's more than likely that crypto's just won't take off at all.

Grandma loves Centralization

Ok, maybe that's not entirely true, but what is true, is that simplicity and ease of use, more often times than not, require custodial services, an agent that becomes the middle man and broker, if you will, the transactions that a none savvy client would need to do.

So to say Grandma loves centralization, is just a way for me to say that a grandma couldn't care less about a system being decentralized and true to the whitepaper. They just want to be able to buy things online, when they want, without much difficulty. And, if there's a lesson that we can take from the growth of the internet, companies that adopt the "KIS" (keep it simple) models for their solutions, will be the one who take most of the cake.

Blue Wallet is for Grandma?

Maybe, I guess it depends on your grandma. Mine can probably use it just fine, but even though she's on her late 70's she's been an online grandma for 20+ years now and feels very comfortable on a computer.

Having a shopping system that simply generates a QR code and allows you to scan it to pay the bill, is to me the easiest way you can possibly shop online, and I can't wait to see this being implemented all over e-commerce in the near future.

For the Techies

Yes, you can setup Blue Wallet as you wish. Connect it to your own node and what have you, but the fact that it comes "out of the box" ready to rock, even if it is a custodial service, which technically we all oppose (not your keys, not your crypto), is probably a good thing for mass adoption.

I for one, see myself setting up my own LN node very soon, and fully intend to make a few satoshis for doing so. More so because it's so early in the game, I think in the long term, it might actually be one of the best moves I can make. But, as with everything crypto related, do your own research.

Be patient... The best is yet to come my friends.