Lightning Network solution, is it really any different than the current system we have in place already with banks and intermediaries or is there something new here I am not seeing?
In my mind, Lightning Network is very similar to Hawala: If you can't pay the recipient directly, you can get your friend, or friend's friend to make the payment.
that's an interesting take. since money isn't
moving on the BTC network when LN payments are made, it's similar to a hawala arrangement. however, it's not your friend (or his friend) making the payment. LN works because lightning hash pre-images can be pushed to the BTC mainnet if necessary; therefore they are fungible with BTC. so, money
is actually moving on the lightning network. everyone transacting on LN needs to have BTC locked in custody, so it's not like hawala, where one person cashing in means another person cashing out.
Nice to meet another person who knows of the Hawala system. To me it is such an incredible phenomena having lived over in the Middle East and learning of Hawala. It was totally alien to me thinking such a system could survive but the idea of violating the trust in the Hawala system was so alien to the people using it they looked at me like an idiot when I asked them how it could work.
It is like WASTA over there also. Another form of TRUST that has to do with the trust acquired with people in relationships. If you need something done you will have to have WASTA or it is unlikely you will ever get anything done in the bureaucracy of the middle east when it comes to government shops and offices.
Love the idea of incorporating some of that trust into a currency digitally. The time for trust, but verify, is here!