Thread by @MichaelLevin

1/14: Lightning⚡️Network developers are attracting users by solving problems in novel ways. Thus far, those solutions are mostly global micropayment based. But, what if consumer micropayments are just the tip of the spear for the Lightning Development Stack?

Time for a thread 🧵

2/14: Recently, I've been diving into Lightning Service Authentication Tokens (LSAT). I learn best by attempting to explain 🤓 Plus, this stuff is totally mind blowing 🤯 So, I'm sharing some thoughts..

Let's start from the beginning. Ever heard of the 402 HTTP Error Code?

3/14: HTTP uses status codes to communicate server responses to a client's requests. This allows for developers to consume APIs. One rare code is: 402 Payment Required, which was marked as reserved for future use. Seemingly, it was waiting for an internet-native global currency🤔

4/14: ..in came #Bitcoin + Lightning⚡️which solves the pesky micropayment infrastructure problem.

But, there's still a question of how to create a protocol that can easily drop into existing APIs in an extensible manner? Enter LSAT...

5/14: The LSAT specification uses HTTP as well as the Lightning Network to create a seamless end-to-end payment+authentication flow. LSAT allows for a user to pay for a service and get a "ticket" 🎟 of sorts to be used for future authentication and access.

6/14: Okay.. But, who cares? Why do we need that?

💡Well, if LSATs become widely adopted, wave goodbye 👋 to authentication by email addresses+passwords or Sign In w/FB. With LSATs, developers get the ease of an 0auth style plug in without burdening end users with ad tracking.

7/14: Moar?

💡In 2017, the percentage of people in the world with a credit card was 10% (median). Try paying for a subscription or service online w/o a CC. Services on the web are inaccessible for unbanked users. With the pay+auth flow LSAT enables, we can tear down that wall

8/14: Anotha one?

💡API monetization has seen essentially no innovation, ever. It's basically tiers or pay at the end of a period. LSAT allows for the easy creation of metered APIs, where the user can pay as they go rather than committing to a tier upfront.

9/14: Are you not entertained?!

💡Bots absolutely ruin social media. Imagine a world without bots. In this world, a user would use a LSAT and a 1msat payment per ~100 actions (ie tweets, comments, upvotes, etc) Trivial amount for a user, but prohibitive for bots. Be gone bots!

10/14: Overall, LSATs could enable a more accessible, more private, more global web.

This is not vaporware. This is not a fantasy. This is out there right now in production systems. At @lightning Labs, we use LSATs for auth in Lightning Loop.

11/14: Alright, you got to this point.. Your ideas are flowing. But, you're probably thinking how do I actually implement this?

That brings us to Aperture, the wand to help you control the magic of LSATs ✨

12/14: Aperture sits between an API server and the web itself, seamlessly handling the authentication protocol, macaroon operations, plus payment verification. It's a simple reverse proxy server (think nginx).

13/14: With it, developers can easily create or upgrade an existing web service to be LSAT-aware. And, end users only need a LN wallet to interact with it. It's free and available right now. So, go forth and build the future of the web! 🔮🚀

14/14: Documentation is available at LSAT.tech. Huge h/t to the people who are building/helping build this incredible tech @roasbeef @guggero @ElleMouton + @BuckPerley for his LSAT Playground. Be on the lookout for more on LSAT+Aperture #soon 👀

P.S. Should've included originally :)

https://twitter.com/buckperley/status/1431046010076291073