The Lightning Network has been one of the biggest projects in cryptocurrency history, and is the chosen scaling solution for Bitcoin. Once activated, LN promises:
Three teams have been building their own implementations of LN together: Eclair (ACINQ), c-lightning (Blockstream), and lnd (Lightning Labs), with open and transparent collaboration. Today, all testing has concluded successfully and Lightning Protocol Version 1.0 has been released!
The whole point of this three-team collaboration was to show that three completely different apps could work together following the Lightning Protocol.
Below is a video showing a person running lnd, routing a payment through another person's node running c-lightning, to the final destination (recipient) running eclair.
Lightning Payments work on payment requests rather than addresses. Normal Bitcoin addresses start with 1 or 3, but LN Payment Requests start with ln (for "lightning network"). Most "regular" Lightning addresses will start with lnbc ("lightning network bitcoin").
With the Lightning Network Protocol released, everything is setup for unstoppable BTC growth. Investors and hodlers are clearly happy, because Bitcoin is currently at (another) all-time high right now, over 20% up from yesterday (and double what it was one month ago).
However, in order for the scaling solution to succeed, people have to start using Lightning.
This means that wallets, senders, receivers, shops, and exchanges have to begin to phase into the Lightning Network (opt-in, of course).
LN also provides opportunities for instant micropayments, such as going to your local coffee shop, scanning a QR code, and getting your transaction verified instantaneously.
Fees and confirmation times on the Bitcoin blockchain are exceptionally high right now, due to a combination of so many people getting interested in Bitcoin, and the lack of a scaling solution.
Lightning Network solves this problem, and as wallets/exchanges/services begin shifting over, you should notice quite a difference in Bitcoin!
Thanks for reading,
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