Last week Breez Tech announced WebAssembly (WASM) support for their Nodeless Breez SDK. They had to rework a number of pieces of the SDK to make Bitcoin and Lightning work in the browser, implementing new ways to grab blockchain data, handle databases in memory, handle DNS resolution, interact with filesystems across different platforms, etc.
Now a Lightning enabled wallet or application can run entirely in-browser.
I’m sure plenty of you are immediately cringing and thinking about security concerns, and I would be the first to say that storing any material amount or significant percentage of your wealth in such a way is insane, but some portion of everyone’s stack needs to actually be usable.
Bitcoin’s future as a real monetary network is not one with a million different apps and devices, fumbling around to find the right one depending on what you are trying to do or what kind of transaction you are trying to make. There is room for what you are saving, and what you are spending, but much more complexity in terms of interoperability is too far for your average person.
Saving can afford some complexity and friction, but when it comes to actually using bitcoin, it needs to be seamless and embedded everywhere. If Bitcoin is going to be the future of money then it needs to actually be intuitive, it needs to be flexible, it needs to feel like the future.
People seek out convenience in all things, money is no different. We cannot expect your average person to spend 20 hours researching different devices, testing different applications and wallets, and then eventually scattering their funds across half a dozen apps and pieces of hardware.
People need to be able to open any device, any app, and be able to access whatever bitcoin they have available for spending. That won’t happen magically by itself. That requires work. That requires collaboration on standards. That requires doing the engineering work that doesn’t make for attention grabbing headlines.
Breez has been absolutely killing it in terms of doing this kind of work. Other examples are BDK and LDK from Spiral, libraries for building apps or integrating Bitcoin and Lightning into existing apps. Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) is another example of standards for interoperability. The PSBT standard in BIP 174 by Ava Chow is another. We need this energy and direction to be amplified heavily.
Bitcoin will not succeed in its goal of adoption if people are confronted with a fragmented landscape of different walled gardens, or inconvenient ways of using different tools together fraught with friction.
Bitcoin needs to be everywhere, seamlessly, embedded into everything.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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