Thanks for writing that. That sure was a very interesting read.

I’d just like to correct one misconception about 2nd layer transactions. If your employer wants to pay you monthly wages in Bitcoin for the next 10 years, then they could open a payment channel with you that’s fully funded by them and requires zero funding by you. In fact, if the channel is to be used for payments from your employer to you only, and not the other way, then it can be implemented in a much simpler way than a bidirectional one. Two on-chain transactions, one for opening, and one for closing, would suffice to allow up to 10*12 monthly wage payments. Or the employer could even by you day-by-day, or by the hour. All channel payments are instant and fee-less (unlike the network wide Lightning that incurs routing fees) and require just a small interaction between the channel participants. The channel can be closed by either participant at any time.

Btw, I agree that Bitcoin invites speculation and greed. which I partly blame on its emission, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23147005