Our boy StopAndDecrypt is at it again, clearly explaining billion-dollar business ideas for free on Twitter dot com. How generous of him, we are truly lucky. Seriously though, keeping in line with the recent theme of UX design + Bitcoin, this is what I envision the winner of the consumer Bitcoin wallet war to look like. A company that comes to market with every box on the above list checked off is going to see a lot of traction IMHO.
* Your app provably doesn't collect data
— StopAndDecrypt (@StopAndDecrypt) February 18, 2019
* Has a warrant canary on launch
* Simple/advanced/expert user toggles, with warnings (must manually enable enable...each time)
* Allows users to create a transaction offline, and announce it elsewhere (like via Blockstream's explorer)
* Your Lightning node has a moderately set fee rate
— StopAndDecrypt (@StopAndDecrypt) February 18, 2019
* The apps default settings to open a channel are set to connect to your node, but can easily be changed
* You make money by being usable, open, honest, and consistent
* This functionality includes to-be-built features like AMP (multipath routing), and invoice generation that doesn't reveal where the payment is going to the 3rd party that the invoice is sent to (they won't know your app's user is using your app/node)
— StopAndDecrypt (@StopAndDecrypt) February 18, 2019
* Both BTC/LN wallets can be easily backed up, separately
— StopAndDecrypt (@StopAndDecrypt) February 18, 2019
* Users can import any of the standardized wallet/key seeds, and raw keys
* When watchtower functionality is ready, users can select any one they want and connect directly to them (you have no idea which ones they choose)
Low-hanging fruit, freaks. It's out there to be scooped up by people with enough balls to take the risk of dedicating time and some money to make it happen. Luckily, we have trailblazers like Samourai Wallet pushing the edges of the mobile wallet space towards a future of better privacy and financial freedom that Bitcoin can enable. However, there is much room for increased competition and improvement. More companies entering the fray, lighting a fire under incumbents' asses so that they compete on privacy + security, will ensure that we have the ironclad digital tools needed to interact with Bitcoin without a 3rd party or with the least amount of risk as possibly needed when interacting with a 3rd party.
For some reason, I'm extremely optimistic that competition is on the way. I don't think we're as far off from these ironclad tools as some think we may be. Once someone checks off the above list and provides a seamless UX on top of it, everyone will be forced to compete using these features as new baseline features when creating/upgrading a wallet.
Who's got the balls to send it?
Final thought...
Haven't had a glass of milk in ages. Used to chug it by the half gallon in high school. Don't miss it that much.
