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Company Name:<\/strong> Alby<\/p>\n Founders:<\/strong> Michael Bumann, Moritz Kaminski and Ren\u00e9 Aaron<\/p>\n Date Founded:<\/strong> Open-source project founded in December 2020 \/ Company founded in March 2022<\/p>\n Location of Headquarters:<\/strong> Fully remote<\/p>\n Amount of Bitcoin Held in Treasury:<\/strong> N\/A<\/p>\n Number of Employees:<\/strong> 10<\/p>\n Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/getalby.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Public or Private?<\/strong> Private<\/p>\n Michael Bumann wants to make it simpler for people to send value across the internet.<\/p>\n This is why he created Alby<\/a> \u2014 an open-source initiative-turned-company best known for its browser extension wallet app, which enables users to send and receive sats<\/a> via the Lightning Network.<\/p>\n Bumann, a soft-spoken and introspective German web developer with decades of experience in his field, believes that bitcoin should be able to move as freely as information does on the internet. To accomplish this, he\u2019d like to see Lightning integrated into all corners of the web.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mission is to make Lightning available within web applications,\u201d Bumann told Bitcoin Magazine. \u201cWe want to make this accessible \u2014 to have this real deep integration, a very seamless thing in which payments are no longer blocking user experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Bumann and the team at Alby are currently succeeding in their mission, as Alby is one of the easiest Lightning wallets to both set up and use and has become a go to for creators around the world.<\/p>\n What many don\u2019t know about Alby, though, is that its much more than just a Lightning Wallet.<\/p>\n \u201cAlby initially was the browser extension [wallet],\u201d said Bumann of the Alby wallet, which lets users a create a convenient LNURL address (e.g., yourname@getalby.com) that they can use for sending and receiving bitcoin over Lightning.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal was to have the browser talk to the Alby extension, which then talks to a node on the Lightning Network. Back then we had mainly LND<\/a> (an implementation of a Lightning node) and talking to LND from a browser was and still is actually super complicated,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n After some time, Bumann and his team at Alby created a wallet API<\/a>, which can be used to integrate Lightning payments into any application. Think integrating Lightning payments into your favorite podcasting app to help you get paid as a podcaster.<\/p>\n Alby also provides its users with an LNDHub, which allows them to plug in and manage multiple Lightning accounts via one interface and node.<\/p>\n Many use the Alby browser extension wallet as a custodial wallet, but users can also use it in a non-custodial fashion with Alby Hub<\/a>, which enables users to connect to Alby via their own node or pay a small fee to have Alby run a node for them.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally, we move in a direction where it’s easy enough for people to run their own nodes and their own wallets,\u201d said Bumann. \u201cAnything in between is an intermediary step.\u201d<\/p>\n Alby has something for everyone from new users to the most advanced, which is part of the reason why it\u2019s gained so much traction in just two and a half years.<\/p>\n On that note, Alby has grown faster than even Bumann and his team anticipated, prompting them make setting up an Alby account invite-only<\/a> for the time being, so that they can keep up with demand \u2014 a demand that should only grow as Bumann and his team implement Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC).<\/p>\n While Bumann acknowledges that Lightning is \u201cstill very small\u201d and believes that we\u2019re still in a \u201cresearch phase\u201d regarding the Layer 2 and its use cases, he sees Nostr Zaps<\/a> as a great use of Lightning.<\/p>\n Beyond Zaps, though, Bumann and the team at Alby found another way in which Nostr could help further Lightning adoption.<\/p>\n They saw that they could use Nostr relays<\/a> to send requests to pay Lightning invoices. And so they created a protocol called Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)<\/a> in conjunction with the team from Amethyst<\/a>, a Nostr client.<\/p>\n Over the past few months, Alby has been prepping for the release of its new wallet, which will harness the new and unique capabilities that NWC gives it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are currently about to launch our new self-sovereign Lightning wallet focusing on NWC,\u201d said Bumann.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a new wallet that focuses on NWC as a protocol to interact with the wallet. It\u2019s different from the typical wallet that has a send button, a receive button and a transaction list,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201c[With this new wallet, users] only have to set up channels, liquidity and their keys only once. Then they can give certain permissions to certain applications and allow, \u2018OK, you can receive money in my name. You can send a certain amount of money in my name. Here is a subscription service that I allow to pull $10 from my wallet each month\u2019 \u2014 things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Bumann went on to share that a non-custodial Lightning wallet that accepts and dispenses payments in such a manner would be impossible without NWC. He added that the protocol isn\u2019t necessarily optimized for human use. Instead, it was designed primarily to be connected to other applications, and he believes this will \u201cmake many more applications possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wallet that\u2019s optimized for being always on, because one of the limitations we have with Lightning is that you have to be online to receive and send [sats],\u201d said Bumann.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially if you want to automate things in other applications, the wallet has to be available. That’s why we said, \u2018Optimize for that.\u2019 The user doesn’t need to interact with the application. You get it running once and that’s it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n This type of wallet can run from your desktop, a server or a cloud provided by Alby. Using the cloud option, the users\u2019 data and keys will be encrypted by nothing more than a password.<\/p>\n While Bumann and the Alby team will be fine tuning NWC has it\u2019s rolled out \u2014 which will include the release of an NWC mobile app \u2014 they\u2019ll also be looking at further ways to take Alby into the future.<\/p>\n Bumann noted that Alby still doesn\u2019t have a plan to release its own mobile app as mobile UI is not well-suited for the integrated UX Alby offers via its browser extension product.<\/p>\n He says that implementing Bolt 12 is \u201cdefinitely on the list,\u201d though, it doesn\u2019t seem to be his highest priority.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also paying attention to burgeoning ecash systems like Cashu<\/a> and Fedi<\/a> and considering how he might be able to incorporate them into Alby.<\/p>\n More than anything, though, he and the team at Alby are paying attention to the feedback that they get from users in efforts to improve their product. To obtain this feedback, Alby prioritizes customer service.<\/p>\n \u201c[Customer service] is also needed because the whole thing that we do is really early,\u201d said Bumann. \u201cIt has rough edges, and even Bitcoiners that are excited are still facing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Bumann and the Alby team work to alleviate these problems in two ways:<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, [we] trying to make it easier for users to get around these rough edges, to get on the Bitcoin and Lightning train somehow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond, it’s just super important for us to identify where are people struggling. It’s a great feedback channel. We see it also as like it’s a bit of a collaboration with the users,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n And when Bumann says \u201cwe,\u201d he means it. Despite being a co-founder of Alby, a project that\u2019s grown by leaps and bounds in almost no time at all, he\u2019s remained humble and in touch with those he serves.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very important that the developers that are in the code and building the features get the user feedback or are close to the user feedback,\u201d said Bumann. \u201cThat’s why I, especially in the beginning, [do customer service] and we all still do it.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat is Alby?<\/h2>\n
Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s Next For Alby?<\/h2>\n