1/ Very important talk from , given in Prague a few months ago
He asks: why do so few people use Lightning to spend on Bitrefill? 🧵
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2/ Bitrefill’s main product is selling gift cards.
They have a lot of data on what tools people use to buy these cards.
The company handles between 100k - 200k transactions per month worldwide.
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3/ On Bitrefill people use, by volume in order of most to least, BTC, ETH, Tether, Litecoin, and then finally Lightning at ~5%
This might be surprising to many Bitcoiners.
Sergej says the 2018 version of himself would have predicted 90% ⚡️ usage by 2022.
But he was wrong.
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4/ He asks us to do an experiment:
Go to your App Store and type in Bitcoin wallet.
What comes up?
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5/ On the US Apple store, we see wallets from Trust, Blockchain, Coinbase, Binance, Gemini, and Crypto.com each have between 70,000–140,000 reviews
By contrast, Blue has 389, Muun 125, Wallet of Satoshi 98, Green 23, and Phoenix just 15 (!)
This is a reality check.
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6/ The most popular wallets for transacting — for using Bitcoin as a tool — are altcoin wallets.
The biggest crypto wallet in the world by most counts is MetaMask, which doesn’t even support Bitcoin.
Bitcoin-only Lightning wallets are tiny by usage in comparison.
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7/ Sergej draws a distinction between Bitcoin the movement (hardcore users who run a node, use Lightning, practice self-custody) and Bitcoin the tool (people who use Bitcoin because it works and does what they need it to do, whether that is payment or speculation)
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8/ Even within Bitrefill’s BTC transaction data, we see Exodus and Blockchain dominate usage (outside of El Salvador: Chivo wallet is huge for Bitrefill)
So the majority of Bitcoin users on Bitrefill aren’t even using Lightning wallets.
They aren’t “movement” people.
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9/ In short, very few Bitrefill users around the world are using Lightning wallets
Normies, not at all.
“Be your own bank” folks are a small minority of users.
This is a major challenge for Bitcoin.
Thinking about how this could change is a worthwhile exercise 💡
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Phenomenal thread. Exchanges masquerading as wallets is a serious hurdle IMO.
Meanwhile, educators could be louder in pushing key ownership.
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I think the issue is that educators are very far away from the users. Unless by educators you mean people who recommend which coins to buy. Besides, many users don’t want tips on custody, they just want a number to go up.
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