Oddbean

At current levels of zapping, no there is no real economic justification for it. If someone has a business or otherwise processes a larger amount of lightning payments each month, then the cost/time associated with running a node (or paying someone like Alby to do it) makes more sense. At this level, though, custodial services are more economical and lower risk for most users.

Yeah I suppose if you only relied upon zaps that would be pretty weak sause. Now with Podcasting 2.0 where the culture actually understands what value means, f you tap into that model and scene and culture I think you'd have a node paid for in no time. The cost/time associated with running a node is absolutely negligible, though. People act like it's a full-time job. It's not. I spend more time constantly clearing out my email inbox than I do fussing over my node. As far as risk, custodial services being lower risk is laughable to me.

My entire post and argument is about zaps. Even said so in the original post. Self custodial LN payments with Zeus or Breez are easy enough. Self custodial zaps are not economical for most people if that’s their only need, which it is the only need in my case.

Yeah and the entire point of my post is you demonstrate a tremendous lack of vision if you are limiting your bitcoin stacking activities to only zaps. You're one of the higher zapped guys I follow, and your 4 month zap number is regularly hit on single episodes of v4v podcasts with fewer than 500 listeners. The nostr crowd needs to expand their horizons or you'll continue to be frustrated by a perceived lack of growth. Just my 2 sats of course 😉 https://image.nostr.build/26ae195d57dcac3cbeb80fe570f4a17539c82b38a9939a978c62f8ee877cacbc.jpg

You don't yet see other ways to provide value to our planet and to recieve bitcoin as value returned for that value you provide aside from social media posts? You'll find it. Running a node will help. Certainly doesn't have to be a podcast, you could do the same with code contributions, music, documentaries, how-to videos, comic books, recipes...literally any digital content imaginable can adopt this model and succeed at very small scales/niches. I have been getting sats to my node for 3d printing a lot lately, something I hadn't planned for a year ago.

Basically if you think receiving bitcoin via zaps is your only need, then you don't understand your needs and should do a reassessment. In the not-so-distant future this will become plainly obvious. In the mean time I'll continue to point it out. 🫡

The sooner you build one the sooner you can make it back; people won't likely be able to get more than a thousand sats for their dollar for much longer. I may come off as defensive but in reality I don't need you to run a node; I'm already set. But a lightning node solves 90% or more of the complaints I see on here constantly.

That's the problem. People on nostr are zapping 21 sats. Checkout some of the non bitcoin focused podcasts. See how much they are "boosting." It will put you to shame. That crowd gets it. You would think that bitcoin nostr would be torch bearer here, but it's not. I say this with love. But the podcasting people have figured out this lifestyle years ago. Now, apart from that there is a technical issue that the podcasting people use keysend for lighting and nostr uses a different method. Which is why node running is prevalent in that group. But the generosity is still orders of magnitude higher over there.