Custody

Custody is the question of who actually holds the keys to the sats — the user, or a service acting on their behalf.

Why it matters

It is the honest tension in Value 4 Value. Self-custody is the point of the whole exercise: keys you hold cannot be frozen, and no provider can decide your podcast is a policy violation. But running LND, keeping channels open and backing up channel state is a real job, and the number of listeners willing to do it is small.

Custodial apps are why boosting works for normal people at all. They are also a re-centralisation, quietly rebuilding the intermediary the model was meant to remove.

How it works

At one end, a user runs their own node and holds their own channel state. At the other, a hosted wallet holds funds for many users and credits balances internally — LNbits does this deliberately, splitting one node into many accounts.

In between sits most of podcasting: a podcaster self-custodying receipts while their audience pays from custodial apps, meeting in the middle over a Lightning Address.