...Let's face it: Bitcoin can't scale on-chain, but LN can't be used to create many channels on-chain either. So for mass adoption, LN has to be largely custodial.
why do you say that?
Because it's not even possible to have just a million people make one daily on-chain Bitcoin transaction each.
For a while I was opening a channel every week or so. Yes I use my own HW & node so it's a bit different.
For mass adoption, I'm thinking about at least hundreds of millions of users who each make daily LN-transactions. That's possible, but not if they all have to open their own channel first.
I was thinking of a slightly different scenario. You with your own money have to open up your own channel(s) that you control.
The difference is there are going to be, for lack of better wording, super hubs. Almost like we have now in the LN just places that for whatever reason have massive connections to them with massive amounts of money in them.
This would be where most people open their channels to. Not the DaveF or LoyceV nodes but bitrefill, walletofsatoshi and so on. So you don't have to think, you know they have the routes.
But, we should probably move this discussion elsewhere if we are going to peruse it, since this is the Electrum section....
-Dave