Fun Guide to Bitcoin 2019 – Crypto QuickBits
Bitcoin 2019 is coming next week. While it’s an annual event to reunite BTC community, it’s also a chance for everybody to celebrate and enjoy the latest technology advancements in Bitcoin.
Here is my curated list of items to get the most fun out of Bitcoin 2019.
If you are a hacker who insists implementing and using your own multi-sig wallets or prefers command line, please QUIT reading! It will be a waste of your time.
Otherwise, let’s START!
Lightning Network is the most popular layer-two technology happening on Bitcoin. There will be multiple occasions during Bitcoin 2019 which may require you to pay (coffee, pizza, Arcade games) via Lightning. You want to make sure you have at least one Bitcoin wallet that supports Lightning on your PHONE.
My general take on Bitcoin wallet is you should try to use non-custodial wallets (own your private keys) as much as possible and never put too much money on your mobile Bitcoin wallets (Think how much cash you put in your pocket).
Here is my list of Bitcoin wallets for Lightning:
- Bitcoin Lightning Wallet (Android only, non-custodial): This is designed for power users who would like to open/close payment channels themselves. I used it for the longest time.
- Breez (beta on iOS and Android, non-custodial): Great UX and easy setup without need to write down seed phrases. Breez opens a channel with your wallet immediately after the wallet is created. You have in-bound capacity immediately. You can fund your wallet by either sending yourself a Lightning transaction or an on-chain transaction through submarine swap.
- Muun (Android only, non-custodial): Kudos to Muun team from Argentina! Great UX and easy setup with just a password. The wallet syncs with your contact list, and you can send BTCs easily by phone number. Muun does not support direct lightning transactions yet (on roadmap) but it allows you to pay for a lightning invoice through submarine swap.
- Wallet from LightningLab (beta on iOS and Android, non-custodial): With official autopilot feature, users have no need to main channels themselves. However, I think the UX and onboarding is still not as simplified as Muun and Breez.
- BlueWallet (iOS and Android, custodial): Nice UI and easy to set up and use. However, since it’s custodial, make sure you DON’T put too much satoshis in it.
- Joule by William O’Beirne (browser extension, non-custodial): When you are on your laptop, this is a must-have.
Which Lightning node to open a channel with?
If you choose hard-mode (i.e. maintain channels yourself), here are several places to find other lightning nodes.
- ACINQ explorer
- 1ML
- My node (open a channel to support my further research on lightning network): You can also scan QR code below to open a channel with me.
Now it’s time to fill up your wallets. These are my top choices for buying BTCs. (My favorite)
If you don’t have easy access to bank accounts and exchanges and would like to purchase from somebody else, here are your friends:
Now you are ready for Bitcoin 2019, but wait if you want more.
Here are some tools that could significantly improve your experience.
Published at Sun, 23 Jun 2019 23:59:10 +0000