Oddbean new post about login | logout I love the direction @Alby is taking, by going fully self-custodial. People are so hard on "don't keep your bitcoin on exchanges", yet do not apply that so easily to the Lightning Network. Run your own node. After all, we're here to "be our own banks"... right? ---------- 🌅 It's not a sunset of a wallet. It's a sunrise of sovereignty. 🌅
Self custody is great; self sovereignty is the actual goal.
If you don't SPEDN and you only HODL, you're not sovereign
Yep, and if you spend with unnecessary parties watching you, you're not sovereign. Alby extension is sovereign; alby hub is not.
Why is Alby Hub not in your point of view? Did you look at it?
FWIW, I had to hack the source to skip SSL validation before it would connect to localhost LDK. It's possible to use it without central control, but maybe not out of the box.
which SSL validation and what localhost LDK? It uses a remote blockexplorer and some APIs for the LSPs do you mean those?
Sorry, I meant LND, as configured by RaspiBolt. Alby Hub wants to validate the API ssl cert, but LND uses a fresh, self signed cert at startup. Change was to throw out most of this branch because the UI required a non-blank value, the use a tls.Config with certificate validation disabled. https://github.com/getAlby/hub/blob/d577be439b21e5fa68a82138de293fcd89e0f1c5/lnclient/lnd/wrapper/lnd.go#L53
and why did you not provide the certificate hex in the frontend? when LND is configured you can provide the address, macaroon and that certificate.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong? But the cert changes every time LND restarts. Is there a different, stable cert?
IIRC even the first one fails because it's self-signed. Maybe you've only tested with a public node that has a LetsEncrypt cert?
nope, many run it with LND and that's also how it works on Umbrel and Start9. If the certificate is provided then this is used to validate the connection. The error handling might not be really good if an invalid certificate hex is provided. But I know many who use it successfully in a setup like you describe.
hmm, afaik it should not change every time (otherwise none of the tools would work that work with LND). It only generates a new one if the old one is deleted. It expires after many months, that is true and in Alby Hub there is no update option, yet. But that's a long time.
Last I looked, it needed an alby account and had a bunch of phone home logic for LSP that wasn't available to self host, and sacrificed privacy.
With an Alby account you get a bunch of features like a lightning address, fiat topups, encrypted backups, etc. and it will get more that we can offer with that. But you have the choice in the onboarding to choose. Some data is loaded remotely, like the blockchain data, LSP info, rates, ... You have full control and can also configure those on your own.
I didn't know you could use the hub without an alby account. I'll check it out.
Why do you consider using an Alby account an issue?
Having an account carries risk. My node key & my npub are my sovereign accounts that I control. Alby hub on the other hand requires albys website to authenticate their accounts, which for some reason aren't just our npubs.
If you only HODL, you are piggyriding on actual bitcoiners driving sovereignty
Few
Does custody matter as much for the Lightning network? Don’t most individuals only have a handful of fiat coins for zaps or small purchases in their lightning wallet.
Correct