Wallet of Satoshi doesn't do swaps, it's a fully custodial wallet. Fees for lightning are unaffected by high on chain fees, but your not actually in control of your sats, they are. Best to be used for small amounts only, then move to a self custody wallet once the amount is high enough. Muun uses swaps, and is self custody. Aqua wallet is another option that uses swaps as well, but on the liquid L2 network, and therefore has lower fees.

You're definitely on the right track. There are many types of Lightning wallets, and they work a bit differently based on how they interface with the network and the user. Some are fully custodial like @Wallet of Satoshi and @primal, and others are mostly or fully self-custodial, like @ZEUS, @Alby, and Phoenix. I wouldn't put Muun in the category of a Lightning wallet, but it does offer a higher degree of self custody than WoS. You have a choice on how you want to use them, and you can always use more than one, since there are usually some trade-offs either in features or security. I think you will like Alby and NWC, and there are some easy ways to boostrap onto it without running your own node to start. Check out how @YakiHonne has implemented their wallet. It's technically custodial, since it depends on their Alby Hub, but I like that it lets you spin up a Lightning address quickly and it can be connected directly to Alby Go and most Nostr clients. Also check out the newest release from @Breez ⚡️ which uses Liquid swaps instead of channels, and I hear is looking to implement NWC soon.

Have you tried Aqua? I like it a lot. Very simple and user friendly

@Ryan is correct about WoS. The new version of @Breez ⚡️ (Misty Breez) is a self custodial Lightning wallet and supports Lightning addresses, BOLT12 and more. It's still in early access but looks promising

Ah, got it. I was wrong about WoS then, good to know. Not a fan of swaps though.

There's a few to look at there, thanks!

A lot of people have responded about the WoS difference so I won't go there... But the reasoning behind Alby: If you run your own node like a start9 server or umbrel... Alby hub let's you get more under the hood with channel management and take advantage of their partners for inbound liquidity. Zeus itself requires channel management as well. With Alby hub you can link your hub to their servers just with an account. This gets you access to a LNURL username@getalby.com. This doesn't allow them access to your node, it's just for routing purposes only. You can also link it to your phone with Alby Go. Spend from your own node from anywhere. So you can receive payments without needing to generate an invoice. I had access to old PCs at work which allowed me to build a start9 server for about $150. I really like their interface and I've not tried Umbrel. You can use Zeus to get a LNURL as well, the only problem I found was setting up a channel earlier was much more difficult. I think it has gotten better now though.

I have not. I've stayed away from it because it uses swaps. Doesn't sit right.

What's channel management involve?

I always thought Lightning was built to make bitcoin easie, more convenient amd faster to transact. I thought it would make life easier to onboard newbies but its been a nightmare tbh. From my experience so far it's been a web of experimentation and is just as technical as layer 1, if not worse.

I will do my best to keep this relatively concise. In a nut shell, you set up a channel with another node via on-chain transaction. So if you contact a partner and send 1M sats via on-chain, you have OUTBOUND liquidity. This means you can SEND up to 1M sats, but can't receive anything. Alby hub let's you pay a lightning service provider so that they'll lock Bitcoin up. So an LSP will create the 1M sats on-chain transaction which gives you INBOUND liquidity. Meaning you can RECEIVE up to 1M sats but can't send anything. So you're trying to balance inbound vs outbound. I need to be able to receive as well as send. It becomes a bit of a juggle at times. Nothing super crazy but it takes deliberate action and planning. And because it's lightning, the LSP can unilaterally close your channel at anytime. So it may happen at a bad time when you were expecting to need liquidity. On that same note though... You can use lightning in a way that mitigates the need to pay a LSP. So, you can open a big channel say, 3-10M sats, using your own Bitcoin. Then once the channel is open send half of it to another wallet like aqua or strike or Phoenix. Then you'll have a channel with half inbound and half outbound liquidity. But that depends on your comfort level. I try to keep around 1M sats ready to send at any given time. That way it's not super terrible if it's lost. Gotta think about this as cash in your wallet. How much are you comfortable keeping on you? The other downside with running alby, your node needs to be online at all times. If it doesn't have access to internet, you can't reach your funds until you turn it back on. Even Zeus is really only connected while you have the app open. That's why it has to sync every time you open it. Tradeoffs.

You did a good job at keeping it clear. 🫡 Lots for me to digest though. Thanks

This is what I'm looking for. Ty 😊 🙏🏻

don't forget to zap @DarthCoin ₿⚡️ ;)

"There's no such thing as "best wallet" for everything. Remove this bias from your mind. Choose with your own knowledge, not because x and y told you so." Here lies my problem 🙄 great guide, thanks. There's further reading too ⚡️⚡️

it's 100% "worse". Lightning is a solution for the inherent scalability problem that a decentralized ledger (blockchain) has. Some people (bcash) think it is a good idea to scale the layer 1, which is IMO the dumbest thing ever, since every single transaction does not need to be broadcast, verified, mined, and stored forever by every single node in the network, in an imutable ledger. It's incredibly ineffective. The other option is to scale with layers (batching transactions) . This introduces more complexity and requirements (liquidity, liveness, penalty...) in the case of LN. It does not make things easier. But it's the only way (in production) to use real money (bitcoin) fully sovereign in an effective way In some ways, the UX is better, since you have instant settlement, without waiting for onchain confirmation. but other than that, I wouldn't say it is easier to use.

Yes :) using sovereign money comes with a lot of responsibility, and thus a lot of learning. The community is here to help, but the learning process is everyones own journey

I’m a total newb… can you point me in the right direction for what swaps are and pros/cons?

@BTC Sessions has tutorials for custodial and self custodial Lightning wallets 🤙🏽 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxdf8G0kzsUUE7HHNTGTWBFxzt2oudiyS&feature=shared

Updated version on my github page and translated in 8 languages

DarthCoin Guides

Lightning Wallets Comparison Guide

In depth functionalities review of all important Bitcoin Lightning Wallets, analyzed in 4 categories

(all my guides were migrated from substack and translated on the github page)

good to know! I've been linking people to your guides all the time, I will make sure to link to gh .io from now on!

yeah I "retired" the substack, not posting/updating anymore there, but I keep it as reference. In the end is bitcoin history and should not be deleted. New and updated guides are only on the github page and also people can easily make PRs and / or just take the entire HTML files and do whatever they want with them. Bitcoin education must be free.

Bookmarked 🫡