The challenges of the Lightning Network, adoption in Africa, and Bitcoin as a tool for defending individual freedoms. Interview with the founder of the Bitcoin for Fairness project.
During the Tuscany Lightning Summit, the focus was on the upcoming developments of the Lightning Network.
The challenges of using Lightning in a non-custodial manner and the scalability prospects of the network have been two central topics of debate in recent months.
To discuss this and more during the summit days, Atlas21 interviewed Anita Posch, a disseminator, author, and founder of the Bitcoin for Fairness project.
Using LN in a non-custodial manner can be challenging during periods of high fees, especially for people living in countries in the Global South, like the ones you have visited. Do you believe that the current state of LN could be a problem for onboarding people living in these countries?
Yes and no. LN is a fundamental protocol for scaling Bitcoin, and it is very important that it is working. I sincerely believe that LN is not dead as some claim. Many people, especially on Twitter, criticize LN and believe it is a failed project for the reasons you just mentioned. But I don’t think so, quite the opposite. I think it is the price to pay to grow the network. It takes time before technologies, especially decentralized technologies like Bitcoin and LN, can be adopted and implemented in such a way that they can serve millions or billions of people the way they should. Ten years ago, YouTube didn’t work like it does today. I believe it takes a lot of patience and more involvement from people in all of this; it’s easy to criticize things when you’re not using them. I believe that as LN is used, more people will realize how reliable it already is today. I downloaded my first wallet in January 2019 and opened my first channel, and I remember how difficult it was compared to today. There are wallets like Mutiny, Phoenix, and Breez that are very convenient and easy to use. In most cases, I have no problems onboarding people to these types of wallets.
Do you find it easier to onboard people today compared to 2019 thanks to these types of wallets?
Yes, absolutely. It’s much easier because you don’t need to explain concepts like block time, mining fees, or coin control right away, which is a topic you have to explain when fees rise and is not so easy to explain. It’s easy to get someone to download a wallet, but in my experience, it takes time to understand which concepts to know to manage your bitcoins on-chain efficiently and securely. LN wallets are an incredible tool because they obscure all these “issues.” But as you said earlier, sometimes opening an LN channel can be very expensive. I have screenshots of people from Zambia who are angry and disappointed because they sent $80 to open an LN channel on Phoenix but only received $55. And in these cases, they wonder “what happened? Where did my money go?” It’s hard to explain to them that on-chain fees were high when they opened the channel. So I’m glad to see these days at the Tuscany Lightning Summit that LN development continues. I was sure, but it was a confirmation for me to see how far we have come. Of course, it will take more years to see improvements implemented like Bolt 12 or NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect).
Another debate that has been going on for months within the community is the discussion between supporters of Bitcoin as a store of value and those who see it as a medium of exchange. Based on what you have been able to witness through your work, do you believe that Bitcoin is more useful as a store of value or as a medium of exchange?
In my experience, I have seen that in the Global South it is used more as a medium of exchange, but obviously it is also used as a store of value because Bitcoin can be and is both things. I believe that people, especially on Twitter, who see it only as a store of value, advocate for it because they live in Western countries like the United States or Europe and have the ability to save. The majority of people in the Southern part of the world cannot do so. Moreover, they live under more authoritarian governments than ours. I believe the whole discussion is “Western-centric”: a person living in a Western country cannot know the needs and problems of people living in those countries and the solutions that Bitcoin offers them.
From your experience, do people who use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange tend not to prefer tools like Tether?
Yes, they do prefer it. In Zimbabwe, for example, 80% of cryptocurrency trading volumes are represented by Tether, while 20% are represented by Bitcoin.
So there is still a percentage that uses Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, right?
I’m not actually sure. Perhaps they mostly use it as a store of value, while using Tether for a “stable” currency. The fact is that it’s not yet in people’s minds that Bitcoin’s volatility over time is lower than the inflation of their currency and the loss of purchasing power in their currency and in US dollars. But I believe these things just need more time, education, and experience.
You’ve mentioned several times that you’ve been a victim of discrimination in your life. Have these episodes helped in your discovery of Bitcoin? Is there a connection between people who are or have been discriminated against in some way and Bitcoin?
Yes, absolutely. Reflecting on this has opened my mind to the positive impact that Bitcoin can have for people who are part of a minority and who may be excluded from society. These episodes have made me more open to the idea of Bitcoin, to the idea of a tool that helps us protect ourselves against rules that someone else makes and against basic individual freedoms. Bitcoin is the only financial tool that meets these requirements because it is truly uncensorable.
For example, in Zambia, I met a woman who had organized a protest for the rights of homosexual women: she was arrested and the first action the government took was to close her bank account. An episode like this makes you understand how Bitcoin can help different people and defend human rights around the world.
What is your main focus at the moment with the Bitcoin for Fairness project?
My main focus is the Crack the Orange educational program, an online learning platform designed to inspire and educate those who want to start a Bitcoin community and share knowledge with others in the community. We offer scholarships that allow participants to join the program for free, and the goal is to onboard 200 Bitcoin educators within a year. We started last August, and so far, we have reached 120 participants, so we’re making good progress.
