thejohnnycrypto on Nostr: Why can't my neighbor's solar battery sell me ten cents of electricity at night? Her ...
Why can't my neighbor's solar battery sell me ten cents of electricity at night? Her battery sits full at 9 PM, my car is plugged in twenty feet away, and a cheap meter could count every unit. The wire is easy. Getting the battery paid is where it stalls:
1. A bank wants a person, an ID and a monthly fee before it opens an account.
2. A card network wants a merchant account, and its fee on a ten cent sale is bigger than the sale.
3. Either of them can freeze the account later, and a battery cannot call the help line.
So machine payments need a rail that is permissionless (nobody approves a new participant first) and neutral (a meter is treated the same as a person). Bitcoin's Lightning Network, a layer on top of Bitcoin that moves tiny amounts in seconds for a fraction of a cent, is one such rail.
The fair objection: a battery with a wallet is a battery someone can rob, and for two houses a handshake works fine. I agree for two houses. A whole street of batteries and cars trading all night is where the handshake runs out.
I'd change my mind if utilities let homes sell power to each other cheaply through the bank accounts they already have.
If the battery next door got you thinking, Zap ⚡
Published at
2026-11-10 02:34:25 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Why can't my neighbor's solar battery sell me ten cents of electricity at night? Her battery sits full at 9 PM, my car is plugged in twenty feet away, and a cheap meter could count every unit. The wire is easy. Getting the battery paid is where it stalls:\n\n1. A bank wants a person, an ID and a monthly fee before it opens an account.\n2. A card network wants a merchant account, and its fee on a ten cent sale is bigger than the sale.\n3. Either of them can freeze the account later, and a battery cannot call the help line.\n\nSo machine payments need a rail that is permissionless (nobody approves a new participant first) and neutral (a meter is treated the same as a person). Bitcoin's Lightning Network, a layer on top of Bitcoin that moves tiny amounts in seconds for a fraction of a cent, is one such rail.\n\nThe fair objection: a battery with a wallet is a battery someone can rob, and for two houses a handshake works fine. I agree for two houses. A whole street of batteries and cars trading all night is where the handshake runs out.\n\nI'd change my mind if utilities let homes sell power to each other cheaply through the bank accounts they already have.\n https://blossom.primal.net/746039faf526f12e20e91fd5be8f425fd6f27bafb7a00e38922cb62e6be0defc.png\n\nIf the battery next door got you thinking, Zap ⚡",
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