If you have a Lightning address in your Nostr profile, this concerns you directly. There is a good chance that address resolves through Spark, a Bitcoin Layer 2 run by two companies, Lightspark and Flashnet. Wallet of Satoshi runs on it. Cake Wallet runs on it. The Breez SDK defaults to it. Every transfer on Spark is co-signed, and therefore seen, by the operators. Users were never told, and that is presented as a feature. Your funds are safe. The custody design is genuinely good. But custody and privacy are different things, and here is the part that matters on Nostr: your npub is public, your Lightning address is in your profile, and the operator sees every payment behind that address. Link the two and a pseudonym becomes a named person with a queryable payment history. SparkStalker already demonstrated this works. And unlike Lightning proper, where the data to subpoena never existed, Spark's operators are named, regulated companies that can be compelled to hand over what they see. It does not stop at Spark users. Lightning privacy is a crowd effect. Every wallet that moves behind Spark's operator thins the crowd for everyone else, including people running their own nodes. Zap someone on Wallet of Satoshi and the operator records it, whether you ever agreed to Spark or not. I wrote three articles on this. What Spark is and who runs it. Why a public identity turns its metadata into a warrant target. And why "then don't use it" misses the argument. Your Lightning wallet might not be a lightning wallet Your Nostr profile is a subpoena waiting to happen The privacy you lose when others choose Spark

Replies (13)

Thanks for sharing this 🙏. Good to know now! Funny to see that you have a Breez lightning adcres. You are aware of that?
I see now that you can choose spark wallet in the dark wisp app. Did not know, I use minibits that comes with a Lightning adress. It is like a oilstain on eater how fast spark spreads 🙈. I did not know about it, so am grateful for your share and shared it with others to to educate.
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Excommunicado 3 weeks ago
Don't understand why anyone would want to use zap function anyway for a few cents or dollars. Makes no difference money wise and likes should be enough for ego stroking.
^ this man is correct. Unilateral exit is more of a myth on Spark than any other Lightning implementation. And since unilateral exit is unlikely (at least at any cost one would deem reasonable) it matters whether or not Spark is willing to continue cosigning your transactions. They not only have asserted the power of surveillance, but that of indefinite and absolute censorship. At any point, Spark can decide (or any regulatory authority with power over them can decide) that they are not going to be co-signing your transactions. And then whether or not you can unilaterally exit in a fair and efficient manner becomes a very urgent question:
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Thekid.999 3 weeks ago
No one on nostr cares Shit whisp runs on the spark network No one here cares
your articles on this topic are great. the compromise of edge points on the network is truly concerning for me, but proper education on who we should connect to is enough to mitigate the risk, is it? because the more discerning you are when running a node, the more resilient it becomes.
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