Looks like I’m in the minority here, but my Lightning experience has been really positive and fun.

I installed LND on the same AWS VM that runs my Bitcoin Core node, set up two outbound channels, one with BitRefill and one with Kraken, and use them routinely to purchase goods and services from various vendors. It's truly a thing of beauty. There was a learning curve and a couple hiccups along the way, but nothing that couldn't be resolved via a quick Reddit post.

People might respond, “Good for you, but Aunt Mildred doesn’t have the technical expertise to deploy something like that.”

That may be true, but Aunt Mildred won’t have to do things the hard way and go through the early adopter curve like we did. I imagine she’ll just have a little box, the size of an AppleTV or Roku, that plugs into her WiFi network. With that, and a companion app for her phone, she can be using non-custodial Lightning within an hour. Well ok, maybe longer if she has to wait for the entire Bitcoin blockchain to download to the Bitcoin Core node that runs on her little box.

I think people are severely underestimating the ingenuity of developers who'll be creating these sorts of all-in-one dedicated devices that wrap up all the nastiness and complexity of Bitcoin and Lightning. Aunt Mildred won't even have to know what a UTXO or channel is.

I betcha it'll look a lot like media consumption does today. A few us will download a 4K torrent, place it on our NAS, and watch the content using the Infuse app on our big-screen televisions. But the other 99% of consumers say, “That’s too hard. I’ll just get an AppleTV box with a Netflix subscription, plug it in to a wall socket, and watch Ozark.” I think that's how it's going to be with Lightning, or whatever L2 tech we settle on. Plug-N-Play, baby! 

 I agree man but clearly you're a huge nerd just like me, but can we expect everyday people to spin up vms on AWS?  

 Exactly! That’s what I’m trying to say in my post. They won’t have to. They’ll just plug a little dedicated box into their own WiFi network and be good to go. No AWS, no channel management, no understanding of UTXOs, force closes vs cooperative closes, etc. 

 They could get a Sovran Pro! ;) 

 You're definitely overlooking some issues that are harder to solve here. I agree little set-top boxes could be a way for normies to get into lightning one day, but to get to that point we really need to solve balancing & security issues that seem very formidable, if not impossible. 

 People always underestimate human ingenuity. 

 :big eyes:
u installed on aws vm and go on kraken channel and bitrefill (those two wont hold anymore more, they are gonna get capture any month now).

u are too deep of u own stuff to see around u. Bitcoin just work, it will take a lot to get this system down. If fees get high on the mainchain, lightning should take the relay and isnt that his main purpose. To reduce the fee.
But noOO u need to lock coin and if ur a good boy maybe...maybe u get ur coin back. That a middleman shat right here. That not the principle that bitcoin stand for. 

On my opinion lightning is another project like cumrocket

https://youtu.be/H6eWvx3OyKw