From um4711 at mutluit.com  Mon Dec 11 23:08:17 2017
From: um4711 at mutluit.com (U.Mutlu)
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:08:17 +0100
Subject: [Lightning-dev] LN public marketplaces (exchanges)
In-Reply-To: <878te9v8bm.fsf@gmail.com>
References: <5A2C301F.5090402@mutluit.com> <878te9v8bm.fsf@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5A2F0FE1.5080108@mutluit.com>

Christian Decker wrote on 12/11/2017 11:59 AM:
> Not sure I fully understand the use-case you are referring to. Is this
> supposed to be a short-term loan to get a bill paid or is this supposed
> to facilitate muli-hop payments? In the former case there is no support
> for it yet, since all of the payments in LN are always fully backed by
> Bitcoin. In the latter case, I don't see how that differs from the
> multi-hop payments we already do.

I must admit I'm new to LN and don't know yet if it can be used
in setting up such a scenario:

A bitcoin transaction usually takes at least 10 minutes for confirmation.
An instant payment could be realised if a middleman pays out the amount
to the receiver immediately, and gets his money back from the original
sender the normal way (ie. waiting the 10+ minutes).

The middlemen (ie. other users) would announce their such service at
a marketplace (the highest amount he/she is willing to overtake plus
the fees he/she wants). With each transaction, Bitcoin would pick
the best offer from the orderbook of the maketplace and process the
transaction that way (ie. swapping the receiver by the middleman).

The advantages: the receiver gets the money instantly,
and any user can play middleman (hence an exchange for it),
the middlemen earn from the fees, exchanges get established, ...

Just an idea...