# [[Lightning]] [[UX]] ## [Lightning at the End of the Tunnel: Overcoming Bitcoin’s UX Challenges](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-overcoming-bitcoins-ux-challenges-5738171c759e) [[Roy Sheinfeld]] for [[Breez]] blog on [[2019-05-14]] (excerpts) ### [[Lightning Service Providers]] LSPs are basically network hubs. Just like ISPs, they make it easier for users to connect to the network. In the language of autopilot, an LSP is just a routing node that recommends itself. As an active partner in its users’ payment channels, the hub can spare users some further configuration hassles. For example, [Breez](https://breez.technology/) funds users’ channels with inbound liquidity, letting them receive bitcoin over the network immediately. Bitrefill’s [Thor](https://www.bitrefill.com/thor-lightning-network-channels/?hl=en) service works similarly. LSPs are one big step closer to zero-configuration. Centralization is not a concern with LSPs because a number of them exist already (with many more to come), so users can connect to several. In fact, Breez will soon allow users to select an LSP of their choice, minimizing configuration while preserving decentralization and user autonomy. (Roy then draws an analogy to [[Internet Service Provider]]s (ISPs)) ### What does an LSP actually do? #### 1. Opening channels An LSP’s first function is to open a channel with a new user’s node and to confirm its active status. Since the channel is initiated and created by the LSP, the user doesn’t need to fund the channel herself from an existing on-chain wallet, which greatly simplifies the on-boarding process. LSPs can onboard fiat users directly, leapfrogging on-chain technology and flattening the learning curve. #### 2. Incoming capacity When a user manually opens a channel, she cannot receive any payments until she spends some of the funds used to open the channel. In an LSP model, where the LSP funds the channel from the outset, users benefit from immediate inbound capacity. While users will still have to deposit funds into the channel before they can spend anything, the LSP’s inbound capacity will let them receive funds immediately via Lightning once the channel is active. #### 3. Routing LSPs act as hubs, providing users with a secure, stable connection to a node that itself is well connected with payment channels to further hubs and ensuring that users can always [route payments](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-network-routing-privacy-and-efficiency-in-a-positive-sum-game-b8e443f50247?source=collection_home---2------1-----------------------) where they please. LSPs’ connectivity is their capital. #### 4. Rebalancing Hubs need open channels with each other to route payments. They also have local and remote balances, and if those balances fall out of … erm … balance, then they will no longer be able to forward users’ payments. A busy hub whose channels are all skewed toward the remote balances won’t be able to forward payments, and a hub receiving high volumes of incoming transfers will run out of channel capacity to accept any more. Another vital LSP function, then, is rebalancing the distribution of funds in the local and remote balances among themselves to ensure the liquidity of their payment channels and the mobility of users’ funds. #### 5. Reliability In order to avoid downtime, users can either open a range of different channels with different nodes in different locations and on different terms, or they can connect to just one or a few hubs who must provide reliable service to survive. The first strategy requires lots of management and lots of funds to be committed in different places, whereas the latter relies on the network’s built-in incentive structure to solve the problem. Beyond uptime, there is also the more fundamental need to have open channels available at all. When push comes to shove, either node on a payment channel can (force) close it with little or no warning. By providing users with rock-solid [SLAs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-level_agreement), LSPs can reassure users that they’ll be able to pay and get paid when they want without having to manage multiple channels and commit funds all over the network. And the SLAs reassure users that channel closures will only happen in predictable, well-defined circumstances. ### LSPs help to onboard users, and Breez helps to onboard LSPs Despite the fact that it’s a great business model open to virtually everyone, there are not many LSPs currently out there. [Breez](https://breez.technology/) is one (very good) example. When users install the Breez app, we provide them with 1M satoshis of incoming capacity in channels the Breez hub opens for them automatically. Our hub is well-connected too: it actively rebalances funds on its payment channels to ensure liquidity with [over 70 other hubs](https://1ml.com/node/031015a7839468a3c266d662d5bb21ea4cea24226936e2864a7ca4f2c3939836e0). At the moment, Breez users automatically opt in to the Breez LSP. In the near future, though, we’ll be giving our users the option to select a different LSP within the app. They’ll still be able to use the Breez app with all its advantages, but they’ll be able to select the LSP(s) of their choice — _including their own nodes_. Choice is good for users, competition is good for the market, decentralization is good for the network, and users are good for Breez. Everybody wins. But we’re not the only LSP currently operating. There are a few others on the market providing users with funded channels and with more or less channel and balance management: [LightningTo.Me](https://lightningto.me/), [LNBIG.com](https://lnbig.com/#/), and Bitrefill’s [Thor](https://www.bitrefill.com/thor-lightning-network-channels/?hl=en), for example. They’re all doing their part to onboard users and to expand the Lightning economy. ## My experience with [[Zap]]: awful - Turned off VPN and tried opening a 0.02 BTC channel. Could not open with: - Zap (connect timed out) - Y'alls (connect timed out) - Bitrefill (minimum channel size 0.1 BTC) - tippin.me (connect time out) - Ended up just doing a normal on-chain payment instead