Oddbean new post about login | logout i was trying to clarify language used to advertise the product. if routing a payment requires using other channels and nodes, then there are intermediaries. if it's expensive and "bad UI" to avoid (what should be unnecessary) intermediaries on LN, it's a bad network.
The network is the point of lighting. Trustless atomic payments made by traversing through the network graph from where your node sits to where the person you're trying to pay sits. It's six degrees of Kevin Bacon. If you needed a channel with everyone you want to pay, you would have to know every person you want to pay ahead of time so you could wait for the onchain transaction to set up the channel.
i understand this, but you've glossed over my point. with LN routing, i have no control over the final route, my payment can go through any number of nodes, those nodes can charge me to use their liquidity. it may seem like this process solves problems, but they are problems that could be avoided in the first place, by using a less abstract layer of Bitcoin, or an alternative. additionally, i *should* know who i'm paying beforehand, even if it is with Lightning. i should be able to plan and open/close channels for myself, choose which nodes i connect to, without rent-seekers imposing themselves on my payment.