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@ ynniv
2025-05-27 20:27:16
Square’s announcement is bittersweet for me. It's been a long time coming and it's finally here, but I really expected to be there making it happen. Life can have a strong random component sometimes.
With unexpected time on my hands, I decided to build the wallet I thought should exist. The one that would finally make Bitcoin a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. I flew to someplace warm, had some amazing drinks, listened to some sweet beats, and walked the beaches trying to make it happen. This seems to be a theme in my life.
But I still couldn't get the ends to meet. E-cash is convenient, but transferring money in and out from the chain is slow and expensive. Lightning is cheap, but it needs maintenance that many people can't provide. Custodians are convenient, but can you say that's peer-to-peer? A mere wallet can't paper over these cracks.
So I dusted off a ridiculous idea that I had a while ago, fired up Claude chat and goose, and started vibe coding. Maybe more like vibe engineering. By the end I'm pretty sure I was a vibe captain. We covered a lot of ground; Claude, and goose, and I. Strategies, designs, implementations, tests, documentation, docker environments, demos.
And what came out was a new protocol. Lightning based, but with no maintenance. E-cash like, but with more trust. A way for people to receive Bitcoin without a UTXO, but still have an expectation of control. It's full of compromises, but isn't that what life is all about? What would it be like if every Lightning channel was a mint, with skin in the game, and some oversight?
What if the Mutiny experience was back? Open a web page: anyone, anywhere, back up your keys, profit. What if those autonomous AI agents needed wallets with minimal trust? What if we could have stability and speed, with only a private key?
The code isn't up to my standards yet, but it's close enough for me to post Bitcoin Deposits: A Layer 3 Protocol for Trust-Minimized Lightning Wallets
https://deposits.ynniv.com
onward.
#bitcoin #lightning