Four out of five “Bitcoin payments” on the fastest payment network in the world never touch a Bitcoin channel you control.
That is not a shitcoiner talking. That is Paul Sztorc, the Drivechains developer, and on October 4 he did not just repeat his usual complaints about Lightning. He compared the way it gets sold to Theranos — a company that raised billions on a product it could not deliver while everyone promoting it kept smiling.
If he is right, then the line you have been repeating to your friends — “you can buy coffee with Bitcoin now” — was never about your coins. It was about somebody else’s app holding them.
What He Actually Said
Sztorc’s claim: custodial services carry more than 80% of all Lightning payments. Not 80% of some edge case. 80% of the thing.
He did not stop there. He described the promotion of those services as a “vast campaign of fraud.” That is Theranos-grade framing, from a developer who has been attacking Lightning’s channel design since at least 2022 — onboarding, liquidity, routing, security. Two of his recurring complaints: channel risk, and the cost of inbound liquidity. A new user literally cannot accept a payment until somebody else locks funds on the other side of their channel. That is not free. Somebody pays for it.
The timing is brutal, because one day earlier a Lightning Labs developer — Alex Bosworth, not some outsider — admitted that private, non-custodial Lightning payments are extremely slow compared with tap to pay.
Read those two statements side by side. The company building the thing says the self-custodial version is slow. The loudest critic says the fast version is not yours. Both of them are describing the same product: convenient for the custodian, inconvenient for you.
The Number Nobody Will Split
In November 2025, Lightning processed $1.17 billion across 5.22 million transactions — and that transaction count is still below the network’s August 2023 peak of 6.6 million.
Here is the part that should make you angry: those published totals do not separate custodial from non-custodial activity. Nobody publishes that split. Which means Sztorc’s 80% is his claim, not a verified statistic — and the fact that nobody in the industry can produce the real number is the actual scandal. They measure volume they cannot attribute, then sell you the story that all of it is decentralized.
Who “They” Are, And Why You Are The Product
“They” is not Lightning. Lightning is code, and code does not lie to you.
“They” is the app on your phone with a lightning bolt in the logo, an email login, a “receive” button and a support chat. That is not Lightning. That is a custodian wearing a lightning sticker, and it is faster than self-custody for exactly one reason: it deleted you from the equation.
And before the Lightning crowd gets comfortable — your side has a problem too. If the best answer to “make it usable” is “let a company hold it,” then Lightning has not solved payments. It solved payments for companies. Every Lightning wallet that asks for your email instead of your seed is a bank with better marketing.
The two camps spent this month arguing about who is a fraud, and neither one is arguing about the thing that actually matters to you: who is holding the coins while the payment happens.
The Only Part Of This That Is Actually Yours
Lightning is not the enemy. Custody is. And custody does not become safe because the interface is pretty.
The test is one question, and it works on every app: if that company disappeared tomorrow morning, could you still spend your sats? If the honest answer needs a support ticket, it was never your money.
That is why this site exists. If you are going to use Lightning, use it where the keys never leave your hands — and when you buy, buy somewhere that never takes custody of your coins in the first place. Bull Bitcoin is self-funded since 2013, licensed across all 27 EU countries, no VC money, no shitcoin exposure. Bitcoin, delivered to your own wallet.
Coupon: LOVEISBITCOIN
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The Question
If four out of five “Bitcoin payments” on Bitcoin’s fast layer are just a company moving entries in its own database, what exactly did you own when you told everyone Bitcoin is money you can finally spend?
This article is for education only and is not financial advice.
Read more: CORE LIGHTNING JUST TOLD THE WORLD ITS NODES ARE GETTING ROBBED and YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET TWO FREE SHITCOINS — HERE’S WHY THEY’LL STEAL YOUR BITCOIN IF YOU’RE NOT CAREFUL
PAUL SZTORC CALLED LIGHTNING A THERANOS-STYLE FRAUD — THE 80% HE DROPPED IS THE PART THAT SHOULD ANGER YOU
