Will Lightning Network be able to deploy forks in future?

[Stedsm]

Will it be possible for devs to "hardfork" Bitcoins over this network too?
Or like splits? Will there be more "possible" Bitcoin clones ever created through this?

[Anti-Cen]

No because some of the cash will be spent in the private ledger so you would never be in a position
to simply copy the main block-chain but other systems like NEO that keeps everything on the block
prevents copies being take by shunting down nodes if anyone attempts this.

One of the few good things I've seen about Lighting Network so far

[achow101]

The lightning network is not a fork nor does it do anything with Bitcoin's consensus rules. It can't really be hard forked unless the underlying asset (aka Bitcoin) is forked. LN works on top of the blockchain; it is not its own separate coin with its own consensus rules.

[Stedsm]

The lightning network is not a fork nor does it do anything with Bitcoin's consensus rules. It can't really be hard forked unless the underlying asset (aka Bitcoin) is forked. LN works on top of the blockchain; it is not its own separate coin with its own consensus rules.

It's a part? Means it can be called sub-blockchain to let others transact off-chain?
But, as there are on-chain forks possible, there may come something like off-chain forks too if they are not satisfied with the delivered results and there may arise problems with it too (maybe) where an upgrade may be expected and a "possibly soft if not hard" fork may be required?

Please correct me if I am wrong with my understanding about LN as mentioned below:
LN is something that allows transactions at almost 0 cost to people who create a channel and do transactions in their created network, and everything gets recorded off-chain and there's no need for validation of these transactions? How will they validated unless they go on-chain? Is double-spending a possibility?

[achow101]

It's a part? Means it can be called sub-blockchain to let others transact off-chain?

No. It is not a sub-blockchain. LN is not a sidechain. LN is not a blockchain in any way, shape, or form.

But, as there are on-chain forks possible, there may come something like off-chain forks too if they are not satisfied with the delivered results and there may arise problems with it too (maybe) where an upgrade may be expected and a "possibly soft if not hard" fork may be required?

LN does not require any consensus changes. It itself has no consensus protocol. Thus there is no way to have a fork because there is no consensus to change. The LN protocol is extensible, and changing it just means bumping a version number. There is no forking.

[Carlton Banks]

Bitcoin can be hard forked, it's a p2p blockchain.

That means if Bitcoin is forked, Lightning might work on the new fork (but that totally depends on what the changes are in the fork, which could include something that somehow breaks Lightning on the new fork).

But this doesn't work the other way round. Lightning is not a blockchain, it cannot be forked independently of Bitcoin

[Anti-Cen]

Thus there is no way to have a fork because there is no consensus to change. The LN protocol is extensible, and changing it just means bumping a version number. There is no forking.

oh yes you need consensus if you send a single transactions across 20,000 nodes because they are not received in order by each node
so a kind of vote takes place to decide the winning combination

Question
Does having more nodes increase the overall speed of the network or reduce the speed !

[achow101]

oh yes you need consensus if you send a single transactions across 20,000 nodes because they are not received in order by each node
so a kind of vote takes place to decide the winning combination

That's not at all how lightning works.

Question
Does having more nodes increase the overall speed of the network or reduce the speed !

Neither. It does neither.

[Colorblind]

Will it be possible for devs to "hardfork" Bitcoins over this network too?
Or like splits? Will there be more "possible" Bitcoin clones ever created through this?

Both yes and no.

From blockchain standpoint - lightning is nothing more then some wierd time-hash-locked transactions between some people. Hard fork preserves those transactions at their current states, however without attached lightning nodes those transactions would be meaningless and can actually be tampered with unless all LN participants will be sitting and waiting to add support for the forked coin within minutes after the fork (I can't see it as a viable possibility). So in reality if you have funds locked in LN channel at the moment of hard fork you either should immediately add support for the fork or be prepared to say good buy to the fork coins locked in your channel.

[pawanjain]

As per how much I know I don't think that the Lightning network can be forked or splitted or something because it is an additional layer which has its own protocols. The main chain of bitcoin can however be forked as it was being done until now. The lightning network creates an additional layer where the sender and receiver uses another layer over the mainchain to send and receive payments thus doing more transactions per second. This increases the speed and improves security. There cant be any fork of it since forking needs to change the consensus of one chain into the new one. Lightning network dont have these kind of implementations though.

[Colorblind]

As per how much I know I don't think that the Lightning network can be forked or splitted or something because it is an additional layer which has its own protocols. The main chain of bitcoin can however be forked as it was being done until now. The lightning network creates an additional layer where the sender and receiver uses another layer over the mainchain to send and receive payments thus doing more transactions per second. This increases the speed and improves security. There cant be any fork of it since forking needs to change the consensus of one chain into the new one. Lightning network dont have these kind of implementations though.

Main chain can be forked and fork will contain all the information about currently open channels. If LN will instantly be switched/copied to the fork and presuming all LN nodes will support forked coin then there will be two functioning forks with two functioning LN overlays. In reality this won't happen and LN overlay above forked coin will be totally screwed. Funding transactions most likely will be canceled/executed. This will heavily devalue future hardforks, since any active LN user won't benefit from free coins.