I love Alby and I think their browser extension in the single most awesome and useful Lightning thing ever created. Having said that, I do think having to pay to be non-custodial (whether via Alby cloud service or your own node), is a total non-starter for 95% of users, and is of course a large reason why lightning has struggled in general.

Additionally, the thing that lightning is best at currently is SMALL payments, which honestly most people don't need non-custodial when it is for small amounts.

Non-custodial is for my cold wallet. I don't mind having some sums in custodial things, so long as they are very convenient and cheap to use.

I'd have happily paid a 500-1000 sats every month to use alby custodially, and I hope they considered that, but guessing it's not possible from a legal standpoint in many jurisdictions.

 @Alby 

 https://m.primal.net/MEFm.png 
You can run Alby Hub for free in different setups, nobody is forced to get the Alby Cloud subscription. We made all of these other free options. Also thanks for the feedback about being willing to pay a small fee for other options, but that is simply out of the roadmap for the time being, you are welcome to write the proposal in our feedback forum at https://feedback.getalby.com/ , who knows what the future holds. Thanks!
Best,
-JP 

 Yea I know it's free thats why I mentioned "whether via Alby cloud service or your own node". Running own node is also an expense.

I will continue to use Alby irregardless but was just giving my thoughts on the 98% of non-technical, less fee tolerant audience. 

 I appreciate Alby’s push to make self custodial easier but I feel that they are refusing to acknowledge that they’re leaving a lot of their core user base behind with this move. It irks me that they do not even want to acknowledge it. Custodial services have a place and for most people it serves what they need. As it stands, most nostr users will simply move to other custodians, or use cashu wallets which are still custodial and are even less proven and reliable than Lightning. 

 there is no second best custodial lightning 

 Most Cashu wallets are already really solid, not sure what you mean by less reliable 

 what do you want us to do?
They sure have a place. and it might be OK to rely on others. 
We just think that the user should be in control and we just cannot offer it. 
We’ve learned a lot over the time and the tech got so much better that this is now feasible. So we focus our resources on what is the best future. 

and btw. I also think it’s a bit like Nostr and Mastodon and X. 
On Nostr I personally think we should care about self-sovereignty. 

 

 The reality is that humans always have and always will rely on each other. Alby had an amazing product/service that many relied on because it was reliable. You’ve decided to completely shut that product/service down. That’s your prerogative. Now you have launched a new product that is no doubt equally amazing, but for a much different and more niche market segment and user base. Again that’s your prerogative. But the attitude I’ve encountered from you and others on your team is that you are dismissive of this market segment. Well, I appreciate what your team has done, it’s a bit offputting. 

 yes, it’s sad, but we just can’t offer it on scale as we wish and I also think people should be in control and that this leads to better solutions long term. 
we know some will not be happy, and trust me that’s hard for us. 
We have also put a lot of work in the options in communities, and friends, and families share a hub for example.  

 I respect the work you and the Alby team have done, and building easier self custody tools is great. It’s just a major shift in what Alby has been, and for me it doesn’t provide what I need. Many users already went through this in the US when Wallet of Satoshi pulled out, and Alby was a reliable and stable alternative that filled that gap. Now that gap has been reopened and most of the users like me, who don’t need to run our own LN node and can’t justify the expense for the cloud service, we will simply leave Alby. It doesn’t matter how good the new product is, or how dedicated your team is, because while it is admirable it simply doesn’t fit our need. You’ve lost customers because of this. 

 let’s blame the US ;) 
yes, we know. we have to focus on what we can do and are able to provide. 

I hope you find a good solution for you and maybe some people will run a hub together. 

 Shouldn’t Cashu/Fedimint be able to fill the gap of custodial lightning with the added benefit of privacy? 

 I love Alby and have used it for zaps and small payments. I don’t mind custodial wallets for these types of transactions. Since the custodial version is closing down, I started using Wallet of Satoshi again for #nostr 

 an btw. we tried cashu, too. and it’s a option in the Alby Hub. Did you try it?
sadly cashu APIs lack some features  .  

 You hit the nail on the head with everything you said. 

 it’s simply impossible to offer it on scale to a global audience at this point. 
especially not for a small team that actually builds open source software.

software and open source money is the solution.