Not _that_ difficult. It's more complex to set-up than using Bitcoin directly but with an analogy to savings and checking accounts I think most people would be able to use it.
> it requires always-on nodes
First of all it's not always on, a phone that connects once a day or once a week is fine (the period depends on the channel parameters that your wallet software uses).
And even then that's only if you want to 100% trustlessly receive funds. To send you don't need to do it and by using watch-towers you can receive without having to periodically go online as well.
> and it requires the commitment of large amounts of currency to fund its channels and make the system work.
Only as much as you want to send.
> It's basically a joke at this point.
To people that haven't tried it or are overly critical of an in-development protocol with a small network of interested volunteers behind it.
Not _that_ difficult. It's more complex to set-up than using Bitcoin directly but with an analogy to savings and checking accounts I think most people would be able to use it.
> it requires always-on nodes
First of all it's not always on, a phone that connects once a day or once a week is fine (the period depends on the channel parameters that your wallet software uses).
And even then that's only if you want to 100% trustlessly receive funds. To send you don't need to do it and by using watch-towers you can receive without having to periodically go online as well.
> and it requires the commitment of large amounts of currency to fund its channels and make the system work.
Only as much as you want to send.
> It's basically a joke at this point.
To people that haven't tried it or are overly critical of an in-development protocol with a small network of interested volunteers behind it.