Add Splicing

[ConorOkus]

Hello, I would like to request some guidance for users receiving splice transactions.

Potential places it can be added:
https://bitcoin.design/guide/how-it-works/liquidity/
https://bitcoin.design/guide/daily-spending-wallet/requesting/receiving/

I'll follow up with detailed suggestions but this flow can be tested in the Phoenix mobile wallet.

[swedishfrenchpress]

Are there any other wallets that have a GUI for splicing? I think Phoenix is the only one that comes to my mind.

[ConorOkus]

Only Phoenix that I'm aware of...

[yashrajd]

Splicing is one the those things where the UX conflict-of-visions comes up: do you want users to form an understanding or a sort of mental model about these thing, even if it comes at the cost of some complexity & mental overhead? Or do you want to hide the inner workings and explain as less as you can to minimise the new things users have to learn as they transact?

Here's what I'd say in terms of basic guidance:

1. consider the approach your wallet (as a dev/builder) takes w.r.t to above question
2. avoid nasty surprise for users through unexpected fees
3. inform users when (and how much) the extra fees (due to on-chain txn) are being incurred (I was burnt by this in Phoenix iirc due to "my mistake")
4. If your wallet does both on-chain & lightning, and a certain transaction will require splicing, inform users about the tradeoffs (fees, confirmation time etc.) and optionally, allow them to choose between on-chain and lightning.

end of rant, what do you guys think?

Potential places it can be added:
https://bitcoin.design/guide/how-it-works/liquidity/
https://bitcoin.design/guide/daily-spending-wallet/requesting/receiving/

agree.

[GBKS]

Let's break this down. Can you maybe share an example situation? Is this for when you want to receive an amount larger than your current receive limit (aka inbound liquidity)? So your channel partner would put more bitcoin in the channel to send over to you?

This is not super easy to recreate, so sharing a screenshot would also be helpful.

[yashrajd]

No screenshot, but here's the thread.

An interesting one from the same thread: https://x.com/yashraj__/status/1764871285199478841

[GBKS]

Thanks for sharing that context. I agree with the commenters saying that you sound like you are broke and that you should use Bitcoin Cash. Jokes aside, it is a total no-brainer that wallets should inform users about fees. And not just in an extreme situation like this one, but as a general practice (starting with the website). Fees are essential for us to evaluate whether we want to use a service/product or not. We are pretty sensitive to this from our experience with banks (for example, surprise extra charges for credit card use when traveling). And one bad experience can really break trust in the service.

[ConorOkus]

I've started adding content related to splicing here: #1194

Should we change https://bitcoin.design/guide/daily-spending-wallet/requesting/receiving/#receiving-on-chain-payments to recommend splicing by default instead of submarine swaps? This might be a better place to express the need to show users fees upfront and the provide the corresponding UI mock ups

[yashrajd]

I've started adding content related to splicing here: #1194

Good to see splicing starting to be added to guidance now that all ln implementations support it.

This might be a better place to express the need to show users fees upfront and the provide the corresponding UI mock ups

The requesting page has fee mockups that kinda cover the splicing case. But agree, with bolt-12 the user might never go through a 'request' flow but find themselves receiving funds like require splicing.