Bitcoin Lightning Wallet ZEUS Is Not Going Anywhere

founder: Evan Kaloudis

Establishment date: 2019, Block 563345; Converted to corporation in 2023

Headquarters location: There is no headquarters. fully remote

Amount of Bitcoin held in Treasury: Private

Number of employees: 2

Website: https://zeusln.com/

Public or private? private

On April 26, 2024, Evan Kaloudis drew a line in the sand.

After the Samourai Wallet developer was arrested and news broke that Phoenix Wallet would stop serving US customers, he made it public that he would fight like hell for self-managed Bitcoin and Lightning Network wallets like the ZEUS he created. , continues to exist.

https://t.co/n0ye9TcNYd pic.twitter.com/Me5ixLeBT0

— Evan Kaloudis (@evankaloudis) April 26, 2024

He argued that the right to private self-management of Bitcoin in the United States must be protected at all costs.

Kaloudis’ words cut through the tension in the Bitcoin space, especially in X, where the sense of desperation was palpable.

A week and a half after Kaloudis’ deeply moving remarks, I caught up with him virtually to learn more about his plans for ZEUS, one of the most dynamic Lightning wallets on the market today. They seem to want to keep all Bitcoin in a walled garden and tied to the user’s identity.

A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, appears below.

Frank Korba: What is ZEUS’ mission and how is it different from other Lightning wallets?

Evan Kaloudis: Zeus really doesn’t like to compromise.

We’ve seen a lot of wallets that use compromises for a variety of reasons. We’ve seen wallets trying to provide the sharpest UX at the expense of self-care or privacy. We’ve seen Silicon Valley’s wallets enter walled gardens.

Zeus wants to let you make Bitcoin payments the way you want, even if you’re just starting out and want to run a full Lightning node in your pocket (Editor’s note: ZEUS lets you run a Lightning node on your phone) . Or, if you’re a more seasoned veteran and are running a full node at home. It could be Umbrel or Start9, or it could be running something in the cloud using Voltge. This also allows you to connect to ZEUS.

There are several ways to connect. There are multiple backends we support. We want to empower people to make Lightning payments as freely as possible, with as few intermediaries as possible and with as much privacy as possible.

Corba: Given the recent crackdown on Samourai developers, Phoenix’s suspension of U.S. customer service, and Wasabi Wallet’s suspension of CoinJoin service, do you think it’s inevitable that authorities will target ZEUS at some point?

Kaludis: I think it’s really likely that Zeus will be the target. Unless the outlook for Bitcoin in this country changes significantly, this is almost inevitable.

And regulators have no idea how the Lightning Network works. It can be interpreted in very different ways. But they know that when they want to come down with the clamps, they have to come down hard.

This really helps us see things from the perspective of our developers and the people who deliver our products and services. Despite the great progress we have made over the past six to seven years, we still have a long way to go.

Corba: It is interesting that Bitcoin’s price rise appears to have little to do with people adopting Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

Kaludis: What are the current common use cases for Bitcoin? People are just trading it like a stock or using it as an entry tool to gamble on shitcoins and meme coins this cycle. People don’t fully understand technology. Meanwhile, the people above are seeing the writing on the wall and trying to nip it in the bud wherever they can. The medium of exchange is actually their biggest threat.

The Michael Saylors of the world, the Larry Finks of the world, people offering ETFs that stand to benefit from increasing numbers would love nothing more than for everyone involved in their ETFs to be neatly organized, accounted for, KYC’d and accounted for. And if it hasn’t really established itself as something that people manage themselves or use as a medium of exchange.

Corba: Is this why the latest iteration of ZEUS put Node on their phones instead of assuming people would run Node at home and use ZEUS as some sort of remote control? In other words, are you working to make it easier for people to use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange?

Kaludis: We’ve really bridged the gap by putting this on the phone and giving it basically all the same features that a remote user would have.

I think ZEUS will be truly groundbreaking. But our priorities and two hard lines are self-management and no KYC.

I would like certain jurisdictions to either stop offering these Bitcoin payment channels (which they already have to comply with, like OFAC) or shut down the companies.

We are confident that even without Olympus (well-connected Lightning nodes running ZEUS) and LSP services, thousands of people would still be using the software. And I’m confident that people will continue to contribute at the open source level to continue making the product better.

Corba: It’s frustrating to think that someone like you would even think about leaving the company. There aren’t many people in this field who can build what you’ve built. So I think the next person with your skills might not even consider starting as an entrepreneur in this field.

Kaludis: We have seen a real chilling effect from this crackdown. It’s a real home run for the opposing team, and there’s definitely a chance that things could snowball into more people getting out of the market.

I sincerely hope my actions encourage others to stand up and not self-police or preemptively leave the market.

On the other hand, if you talk to people who are developing spaces or running startups, they already know that what they’re doing is crazy. They know, “Hey, I could easily work at one of the FAANG companies and make $200, $300, and if I go and work in Bitcoin, the odds of success are extremely small and I can only make a fraction of that.” “Start my own company.”

But this is precisely the problem for Bitcoin developers. Despite all the challenges ahead and the mounting pressure, there is nothing else they would rather do. This is a moonshot, but if it succeeds, the world will change. So I think there are still a lot of crazy developers out there.

Corba: What happened to the Samourai developers, and what prosecutors say Twitter Did they welcome the Russian oligarchs to use their services in lawsuits against them? Do you think it’s better to attack with words, or just keep your head down and work quietly?

Kaludis: Hey, it’s really fun to come off as bluff, you know? And the Samurai team has built an entire brand around it. They have essentially built an army of passionate fans and users, and that has largely contributed to their success.

If you are a nym and have the ability, go ahead and talk. But as a public figure, it would be unwise to stab a bear or kick a hornet’s nest, as Satoshi said.

We need to start thinking more critically. In the battle that is taking place, we still have much to give. To win a war you have to be strategic.

Corba: Let me turn to something more optimistic, namely your plans for ZEUS, and ask you some questions that some plebs from Nostr and X have asked me. Are you exploring a way to allow self-managed users to receive payments without having to initially fund their channels with Bitcoin? What does this look like?

Kaludis: That’s a good question. There are many challenges in terms of self-management. There are people like us super testnet What we’ve done with ZEUS Lightning addresses and these are the people who have figured out really innovative ways to do things self-managingly through payments, like this new hedgehog protocol.

The pre-funding issue still remains. This is a challenging challenge that we are trying to solve.

I think ultimately a lot of protocol level changes need to happen to Bitcoin. This is what we are more optimistic about: self-custody still possible. We are very optimistic about the covenant. We are very optimistic about coin pools and payment pools. Things like Ark are pretty novel.

We don’t want people to break the bank to set up payment channels. As the price of Bitcoin continues to rise, opening the first channel and using ZEUS in a self-managed manner becomes more expensive, at least in dollar terms.

We want to try to avoid moving forward, but saying, “Hey, this ossification push is stupid. “This cripples Bitcoin.” And the Larry Finks, Michael Saylor types that we talked about earlier would love nothing more than to see the core code base and protocols remain the same. Think about who really benefits if things stay the same.

Let’s move forward with an open mind and see what other suggestions are out there. Because there is more work to be done to scale.

Corba: When can I get splicing into ZEUS?

Kaludis: Splicing is what we rely on LND for. I’d love to get it, but who knows? You’ll probably also see it in the core Lightning interface. It would be easier to check this sooner rather than just say the nodes built into Zeus. It will be a huge help to us as a Lightning service provider in terms of cost savings over what our users can do.

Corba: How does ZEUS integrate with Nostr?

Kaludis: Zeus has two Nostr integrations today.

Zeus has a contact list where you can import all your contacts from Nostr. This provides a great way to easily send payments to people you follow. In that way it’s like a decentralized Cash App or a decentralized Venmo for payments for those familiar in the US.

We also use Nostr to provide our own managed Lightning address service. This is a first-of-its-kind offering in mobile wallets powered by the great Super Testnet ZapLocker specification, and essentially uses Nostr keys to sign invoices served by the server. user. So, if you have a compatible ZapLocker wallet, you can say: “Oh yeah, this invoice hash is signed by Frank. I’m going to press this button to make sure that I’m actually looking at Frank’s profile and that it’s him. “Who approved it?”

Corba: With all the innovations you bring to ZEUS, do you keep existing regulations in mind when building? Or are you just building it and hoping it doesn’t break any laws?

Kaludis: We must act in good faith. We already have measures in place to prevent malicious actors from using our systems.

We’re going to have to show regulators when they come knocking on our door that this isn’t just a free-for-all. And we have data that helps us identify bad users and kick them off our platform.

I’m not going to say, “Hey, the Russian oligarchs have come to use Olympus.” Because even if you try to do that, you won’t get very far. ZEUS doesn’t help at all.

The advantage of ZEUS is that it gives you the freedom to make everyday payments.

What drives us is our hard line, our hard line is self-management and no KYC. We do not make payments on your behalf. We are empowering them to pay for themselves.

Once we’re classified as a financial services business, everything else goes on, from individual Lightning node operators to potential miners to self-custodians. And as I said in my post, it’s the death knoll of self-custody.

The alternative is too grim to even contemplate, and it will require some individuals, primarily in the United States, to stand up.