Lightning network

[Fizpok]

Just an oversimplified but nice article. Not mine

https://cointelegraph.com/explained/lightning-network-explained

[kernighan]

That's very similar with ethereum version.  It's not too hard either to understand raiden network white paper.

[blocklife]

Not too complex understanding Lightening networks, its a heavily researched field so there are materials.

Atomic swap may give you a slight headache.

[9kek]

But will it be possible to start using LN with 0 BTC? (then, for example, receive some btc, sending a part of them etc)
Or it is always necessary to "lock" some bitcoins to open a channel?

[BillyBobZorton]

But will it be possible to start using LN with 0 BTC? (then, for example, receive some btc, sending a part of them etc)
Or it is always necessary to "lock" some bitcoins to open a channel?

Im not sure about that, and that is the only scenario where fees could be a problem. If you are some poor person in africa trying to participate in this global economy, you couldn't benefit even from second layer solutions, but I think if you don't have the money for that on-chain transaction, you will be able to use someone's else BTC, and if you provide this liquidity, you make some BTC passively, kinda like PoS for BTC. I don't know the details but I think this is the idea.

[UniBanker]

This is a good breakdown. In terms of implementation is this something that's actively planned for a Litecoin fork, or is this just a spec that may or may not be adopted by new coins?

[cynical]

Just an oversimplified but nice article. Not mine

https://cointelegraph.com/explained/lightning-network-explained

thats great, a good simplified explanation.
So i understand that this has the potential to greatly minimize the massive amount of unconfirmed transactions?

[gayanw]

I thought lightning network is just a concept, until I saw this recently:
https://segwit.org/my-vision-for-segwit-and-lightning-networks-on-litecoin-and-bitcoin-cf95a7ab656b

[spartacusrex]

But will it be possible to start using LN with 0 BTC? (then, for example, receive some btc, sending a part of them etc)
Or it is always necessary to "lock" some bitcoins to open a channel?

Absolutely.

From the BIP. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightning_Network

Single-funded channels: when Alice needs to send a payment to Bob and doesn't currently have a way to pay him through the Lightning Network (whether because she can't reach him or because she doesn't have enough money in an existing channel), she can make a regular on-chain payment that establishes a channel without Bob needing to add any of his funds to the channel. Alice only uses 12 bytes more than she would for a non-Lightning direct payment and Bob would only need about 25 more segwit virtual bytes to close the channel than he would had he received a non-Lightning direct payment

[Vigme86]

Thanks for the article, it`s not completely clear to me when LN will be implemented to the market.
Will be dedicated wallet released to use this channels, how th user could use this thing? 

[UniBanker]

I thought lightning network is just a concept, until I saw this recently:
https://segwit.org/my-vision-for-segwit-and-lightning-networks-on-litecoin-and-bitcoin-cf95a7ab656b

Thanks for this, keep in mind also that this is just another stop-gap for BTC. More lightweight currencies are eventually needed in order facilitate global payments.

[Colorblind]

But will it be possible to start using LN with 0 BTC? (then, for example, receive some btc, sending a part of them etc)
Or it is always necessary to "lock" some bitcoins to open a channel?

No the whole concept of lightning network is that you must "load a gun" first (create funding transaction and post it to blockchain to open payment channel).
In essence lightning network is a barrage of 100% valid but never confirmed transaction. If a single transaction is invalid whole thig will crumble. In theory 1 satoshi funding transaction would be enough to open a channel and then receive arbitrary amount of bitcoins and start from that in lightning, but without initial transaction nothing will work (also note that funding transaction MUST be confirmed and recorded into blockchain). Since lightning channel can have lifetime of days, month and even a years, the fee you pay for funding a channel will be close to the fee you pay for bank account maintenance.

[Vigme86]

That's all great guys but what it is still not clear is how and when the market will implement this technology.
I mean I use Electrum and Coinomi as wallets (also a bit Jaxx but very little).
LN should be just implemented by the Bitcoin protocol but with those wallets I can just make "old style" transaction.

[nafez1]

Thanks for the article, it`s not completely clear to me when LN will be implemented to the market.

[icanscript]

I think that the LTC team wants to combine two technologies in one product: atomic swaps +lightening networks.Quality work requires a lot of time