I can send as little as 1 satoshi up to millions of satoshis instantly. How much faster would it need to be for normal users? Just as the fed doesn't settle each transaction you make at the gas station nor should your base layer have to settle all transactions within your digital currency. That's why we have things like Visa to move money in the traditional world or lightning in Bitcoin.
I also don't think that Bitcoin will be the only ballpark to play in. I just think it's going to be the one that everyone wants universally. I think of it as the reserve currency of the future where everyone derives their value based in relation to the reserve currency.
Maybe but once you start to implement layer 2 solutions, then you are in the hands of the regulators.
Do not be surprised if those running nodes on Lightning end up in trouble since they are facilitating money transmission.
As for the 'reserve' currency, that could be although my sense that we will see a completely new system evolve. I think ultimately people will end up being "networked" and that is going to provide what is needed. With the ability to go from one currency to another instantly, we will see less of a need for a standard pair across all items.
It will be more, when in Rome.....whatever network one is on, that is how it will be valued. Maybe BTC will be the standard value for the purposes of comparison across different networks. Of course, the way Ethereum is going, that could be the one that ends up taking over that role.
A lot of different possibilities before us. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
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I wouldn't say you're in any more of the hands of regulators as a node operator than you are as a miner at a technical level. There's little that any government could do to track down who operates what lightning node. Lots of LN nodes are operated behind TOR by default so even tougher for an enforcement standpoint.
As for a regulation standpoint I can see the argument though I think other legal measures will trump the MSB issue. Lightning is far more than only value transfer as it powers decentralized chat applications like WhatSat. This should give the first amendment lawyers lots of room to argue enforcement is abridging the freedom of speech of those operators even beyond making the argument that money is actually speech. I would hope so anyway for freedom's sake.
I think you summed it up perfectly with a lot of different possibilities before us. I'm hoping that whatever network we use it ends up making the world a better place than the world we live in now.
Fortunately, with the present system, that is a very low bar.
With the way things are going, the power grab is only going to make things worse.
We need to see a lot more decentralized to provide people with options.
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