This is an opinion piece by Tim Niemeyer, co-host of the Lincolnland Bitcoin Meetup and member of the Chief Lightning Officers.
January 4, 2023 (block 770 402for those of you keeping score at home), Chief Lightning Officers (CLOs) were created.
What started as a small group of willing plebs grew into around 50 Bitcoiners engaging in bi-weekly calls with the intention of arming themselves with all the tools and skills necessary to drive Lightning adoption at the global level. local. The plebs that make up the group have a wide range of skills in multiple sectors, such as education, finance and information technology, in addition to working in blue-collar jobs. This grassroots movement has noble goals. As first member Mark Maraia stated in an interview for this article, the CLOs embarked on a mission to help “lightning rule the Earth.”
Diagnose before prescribing
Although Maraia and many other members of the group have experience in sales, the goal is not to “close the deal”: the self-proclaimed members of CLO, who call themselves “Lightning Chiefs”, meet Potential Local Lightning Points of Sale (PoS) merchants with a factual mindset: they build relationships with these local merchants and uncover their pain points. While it’s easy for Bitcoiners to say “Bitcoin fixes this”, CLOs attempt, as Maraia puts it, to “diagnose before prescribing”.
The biggest frictions discussed by the group were high fees, settlement delays, internal fund security, friction during international business transactions, and excessive government regulations. But, as anyone who has sufficiently studied the Lightning Network has realized, it has limitless potential for lower fees, “lightning” fast final settlement, increased security and privacy, not to mention its ability to be wireless. borders and without permission.
The focus of the early CLO meetings was to determine which industries were ripe for Lightning adoption. Early suggestions included cannabis dispensaries, cafes (oh, irony – pay for coffee with bitcoin), food trucks and off-chain restaurants, local sports teams and craft brewers, to name a few. only a few. During each meeting, the group brainstorms other industries that would benefit from using the Lightning Payments Network (LPN). The group agrees that local Bitcoin dating should all strive to get merchants in their hangout to accept Lightning payments. Some already are, like boulder bitcoinwho created an LNURL/QR code that funds meetup event items such as drinks and pizza. Lincolnland Bitcoin is getting the World’s Smallest Bitcoin (Lightning) ATM so that the local plebs can convert their loose change into bitcoin.
Member Success
A member of the CLO, holly young, recently shared her experience running a Lightning Workshop in Portugal for local merchants and small business owners. Besides being called a “spammer” and accused of “promoting a Ponzi scheme or profiting”, Young had a productive experience. With the help of a tech-savvy family member, his internship participants were able to successfully create Coinos accounts. In an article for Bitcoin Magazine, Young described his motivation: “For me personally, the ability to connect sellers with the Bitcoin community and the Bitcoin community with people producing goods of genuine value is a key driver in organizing events of this type. ”
Since that workshop, Young has received several requests for similar individual support. She’s increasingly convinced of Lightning’s potential “as more and more of us devote time and energy to helping him on his natural path to success,” she told me. said.
Another member of the CLO, Ryan Brisch, recently successfully integrated a local restaurant to accept bitcoin through the Lightning payment network. Brisch, who recently started a company called “Lightning Network Solutions” that helps merchants set up the ability to accept Lightning payments, explained the process in his own words for this article.
“Through my local bitcoin group, I heard about a new restaurant called Bitcoin Grill, but they weren’t yet configured to accept bitcoin payments on-chain or via Lightning,” he said. “After talking to a few business owners, including a restaurant owner, I decided to call the restaurant and asked to speak to one of the owners. From there, I scheduled a meeting. The first attempt was a dud, the owner brought something up and left me hanging.
As any Bitcoiner knows, this is a common problem; most people need multiple touchpoints before they can grok Bitcoin/Lightning.
Brisch continued, “After learning about their Bitcoin journey, I showed him the IBEX solution. He was blown away by the ease of use and asked if he could sign up right away! So we went through the signup process and created a few BPTs (Bitcoin Payment Terminals) on a few of their iPads.
From there, Brisch took the time to follow up by training the servers. As stated earlier, the goal is not to close the deal but rather to build a relationship with local merchants. Brisch is planning more follow-up training to ensure a smooth transition.
Another tool in the CLO members’ tool belts is inviting and interviewing Lightning-based companies. The members of the CLO are aware that each trader has needs specific to his situation. Therefore, they do not prescribe a solution; instead, they remain platform-independent. The group has so far called on the expertise of the following people: Analys Falchuk of IBEX Pay, Michael Atwood of Oshi And Adam Soltys of Coinos. Also, a lot of meetings discuss the pros and cons of different Lightning frameworks. And it’s not like there are only a few to sift through (see image below). Among the many options, Satoshi’s Wallet, Phoenix, Muun, LightSats And Blixtas well as payment processors like BTCPay server and many others, have been analyzed.
Maraia thinks Lightning adoption will gain traction in 2023. His reasoning goes like this:
“(There are) a dizzying number of companies innovating like crazy. Lightning companies are like Legos. People will use the Lightning Payments Network without knowing it. The Lightning Payments Network is the Trojan horse ( for bitcoin adoption. (We) are building a community of problem solvers in payments. Lightning can go places and do things that Fiat can’t.
If you run a Lightning business or are a pleb interested in helping bring Lightning adoption to your area, consider contacting the CLO telegram group. find a Bitcoin Dating in your region. Locate merchants accepting bitcoin and Lightning in your region. Adoption will not happen by itself. It takes individuals like you and me willing to go the extra mile.
Like nodes on a network, we are the ones spreading the limitless benefits of these revolutionary technologies in a peer-to-peer payment system that will soon span the world. Remember… Lightning rails rule the Earth.
This is a guest post by Tim Niemeyer. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
