The socialist calculation problem applies to firms' internal operations in exactly the same way it applies to governments. The difference, as you say, is the external profit and loss signals that most companies face.

Having to opt into being able to solve a simple mistake in advance is not a good user experience. It's asking users to plan their mistake and know to do so.

If always enabled privacy is somewhat better, because it leaks less information about the user wallet software and user habits.

Bitcoin settles on-chain. Settling in the mempool is not by design.

Bitcoin must be scaled up in layer and the current solution to small fast payments is Lightning.

As a result, my dad always felt insecure about money, no matter how wealthy he grew.

Sounds familiar. My folks both grew up poor, but my dad was comically poor, rural-living-in-a-shack-and-hungry poor. He has never, ever kicked it, and that mindset has caused a lot of angst, though, ironically, my siblings and I openly discuss how his pathology has also probably been the reason why my folks are relatively comfortable now.

And so, a pattern: the problem giving rise to its own solution, which the problem prevents you from adopting. Kind of lovely, actually, like a big cat that's about to kill you.

I always thought that the role of btc is the same as the role of anything, which is to help you to live a good life. I'm walking the same road with bitcoiners for like half the way, bc there is something important in asking what it means to live a good life, and digging into the defaults society wants to give you. Many of them do not hold up under scrutiny.

But two road diverge half-way through the wood, and I part ways at that point bc btc is not a fetish for me. Stacking is a tool. If my stash ever becomes life-changing in size, I'll treat it the same way I treat my table saw. I get that this will be easier said than done, for some, but I'm sure of my conclusion.

I don't want to miss the starting gun. It only goes off once.

I did that yesterday cause why not

I think the most I’ve used the Lightning is for zaps on nostr and boosts on Fountain. Surprisingly, I’ve never had to use the 2k sats I sent into Stacker News, and is able to generate positive sats flow from comments and posts; either you guys tip very well or I’m not tipping enough, or probably both.

In real life, I try to seek out merchant that support bitcoin, especially Lightning, but they are few and rare in my city. Otherwise, I use it mostly when trying to on board / orange pill family and friends. I would get them to download Phoenix and send them 30k or 40k sats to show them how easy it is to use bitcoin on Lightning.

The last time I paid with Lightning was donating to my local BitDevs meetup for the venue rental. The experience was quick and easy, as they run their own BTC Pay Server. It definitely was a faster process than it would have been without bitcoin, and I would like to also add that it was more private as I always donate anonymously.

Finally, I think education and training will help merchants accept Lightning. But one most important thing for them to adopt is people actually using bitcoin and Lightning at their businesses. When merchants see a clear and considerable amount of demand for Lightning payments, they will not want to miss out and will make an effort to adopt.

Have you considered making or selling Lightning hardware devices? Remote signing devices, battery powered cellular nodes, etc?