Lightning Network was tested on mainnet today!

[thecodebear]

https://medium.com/@lightning_network/lightning-protocol-1-0-compatibility-achieved-f9d22b7b19c4



HUGE news. Version 1.0 tested using real Bitcoin. Maybe LN really will come out in 2018.

BULLISH!

Bitcoin taking over the world confirmed! ;p

$100k 2018 if this is in use by end of the summer.

[dead_m92]

Wow i have been waiting for this for more than months! Those are really big news, not just like those who are saying that bitcoin touched a new all time high.
If it gets implemented on all the wallets, specially on the hardware wallets like ledger or trezor, it would be perfect for everybody.

Hardware wallets fees are extremely high, the same happens with coinbase/xapo/blockchain.info
They really need to change their fees and of course, the lightning network is much more faster than the core one.

When it is going to get implemented?

[richardsNY]

It has to come out. More people than ever are finding their way into Bitcoin, and what they are dealing with are the steep fees that in their eyes may look massive. It not only deals with the transaction fees, but also with the confirmation times that happen to be a bother to people. It's indeed bullish, but as long as there isn't an actual date, it can basically take till the end of 2018 if it isn't longer. Overall, it's giving people something to look forward to despite of how much we have been spoiled already with how this market has gone up. We're building up something special here, and I'll keep holding through.

[bribed]

As long as bitcoin is only looked at as a commodity and nobody is willing to spend their Bitcoin, also lightning network wont change much (besides of hype and therefore price increase). People need to remember what Bitcoins intention was when it was born. We should stop looking at Bitcoin as a commodity and start using it as a currency, then lightning network will be able to enfold its power and bring real benefits. Just my two cents, but I think this is important.

[NWJBL]

Not really sure I get what this is, noob's introduction, anyone?

[thecodebear]

I'm sure it will still be a while until it is actually implemented on the network, and then a while longer before most bitcoin clients update their software to allow LN transactions. I mean look at segwit its been months and still only ~10% of transactions are segwit, thats crazy. But this gives me hope that it will at least go live by the end of 2018, even if it takes a while for it to be heavily adopted.



NWJBL:

Lightning Network is the second layer payments solution for Bitcoin (and some other cryptos like Litecoin). It's main benefit is that it allows Bitcoin to scale to mass adoption, sidestepping the extremely limited transaction throughput of blockchains. Original version of Bitcoin can handle ~ 3 transactions/second. Bitcoin with segwit can handle ~7 transactions/second. Bitcoin with LN can handle probably many thousands of transacations/second.

Bitcoin would still be used for large transactions. But LN allows purchasing small items or even making micropayments online without getting killed by the fees. There will still be normal bitcoin transactions on the blockchain, but the other option will be using LN. To do that you open up a payment channel which does get recorded on the blockchain, so you pay the normal bitcoin tx fee to open a payment channel. In the payment channel you lock up some number of Bitcoin that you want to use for payments for however long you want. You don't record anything onto the blockchain again until your close the payment channel, and you then again pay the normal tx fee. But now that you've got this payment channel open, you can send as many transactions through the LN as you want and they happen instantaneously instead of waiting for slow confirmations on the blockchain and in addition the fees are very small.

From what I've read the fees would be percent based and very low, much lower than credit cards, so maybe you pay let's just say 0.5%, so on a $2 purchase so the fee is one cent. You can make a ton of these LN transactions, with you paying other people and them paying you. It's an interconnected network that runs through LN nodes that companies will set up (which is who charges the LN fees) so you should be able to transact with anyone else on the LN network. But your money is locked up in the payment channel. So when you want to get the money out you have to close the channel which records the final result on the bitcoin blockchain. If you spent all your money in your payment channel you wanted more money on LN you could either close that channel or just keep it and open up another one with new funds.

Basically LN is how Bitcoin goes from being just a store of value to actually being feasible as a global payment network by increasing transaction speed and throughput by orders of magnitude and having low fees to allow small purchases.

[hatshepsut93]

I think stuff like that gets priced it long before it hits the news, it takes just one person who knows about tests to tell about it to traders and boom, there you have it - a new portion of speculation and price rise. Maybe it will still take a long time before Lightning will get deployed, even more time before it will become widely adopted, and maybe it won't solve all problems because it's just the first attempt at offchain solutions, but it would still demonstrate that Bitcoin can evolve, which is indeed extremely bullish - even now Bitcoin is very valuable because it works well as store of value like gold, but if you will be able to build more stuff on top of it, than it would be more valuable than real gold.

[gentlemand]

I think stuff like that gets priced it long before it hits the news, it takes just one person who knows about tests to tell about it to traders and boom, there you have it - a new portion of speculation and price rise.

Your average trader doesn't care about transaction backlogs or fees, let alone something like this. I doubt most of them know how any aspect of Bitcoin works. And I wonder how many people out there understand how lightning networks will work out in the wild. I certainly don't. Agreed on the evolving part. Bitcoin demonstrating that it can is more important than ever.

[sprinkles]

Wow i have been waiting for this for more than months! Those are really big news, not just like those who are saying that bitcoin touched a new all time high.
If it gets implemented on all the wallets, specially on the hardware wallets like ledger or trezor, it would be perfect for everybody.

Hardware wallets fees are extremely high, the same happens with coinbase/xapo/blockchain.info
They really need to change their fees and of course, the lightning network is much more faster than the core one.

When it is going to get implemented?

I only paid about $1.50 fee last time I sent coins from a Segwit address on Trezor.
Didn't think that was too bad since my last transaction from a Legacy address on Electrum was well over $10.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

I think stuff like that gets priced it long before it hits the news, it takes just one person who knows about tests to tell about it to traders and boom, there you have it - a new portion of speculation and price rise.

Your average trader doesn't care about transaction backlogs or fees, let alone something like this. I doubt most of them know how any aspect of Bitcoin works. And I wonder how many people out there understand how lightning networks will work out in the wild. I certainly don't. Agreed on the evolving part. Bitcoin demonstrating that it can is more important than ever.

I’m not so sure about that. I think you are right up to a point, but the average bitcoin investor knows more about the product he invests in than the average stock market investor, as many people just buy what their bank tells is (supposedly) better for them. I think lightning network has played a big role in the recent rise because bitcoin has regained dominance in the market, being now 62%.

And, yes, people buy on expectations, so they don't care about how much it will take to implement, they just see that it will be implemented.

[TERA2]

As long as bitcoin is only looked at as a commodity and nobody is willing to spend their Bitcoin, also lightning network wont change much (besides of hype and therefore price increase). People need to remember what Bitcoins intention was when it was born. We should stop looking at Bitcoin as a commodity and start using it as a currency, then lightning network will be able to enfold its power and bring real benefits. Just my two cents, but I think this is important.

Thats the whole idea. Its not possible to use bitcoin as a currency without the lightning network. its too slow and the fees are way way too high.

[LegendaryMiner]

As long as bitcoin is only looked at as a commodity and nobody is willing to spend their Bitcoin, also lightning network wont change much (besides of hype and therefore price increase). People need to remember what Bitcoins intention was when it was born. We should stop looking at Bitcoin as a commodity and start using it as a currency, then lightning network will be able to enfold its power and bring real benefits. Just my two cents, but I think this is important.

Thats the whole idea. Its not possible to use bitcoin as a currency without the lightning network. its too slow and the fees are way way too high.

That's the breakthrough Bitcoin really needed. It will be really difficult for altcoin supporters to sell their ideas after this, since fast transactions is what most of them say when asked about why their altcoin is superior.

[crypto1010]

This is someting that should excite the bitcoin universe, if Lightning Network can handle as many as a thousand of transacations/second bitcoin will have no problem of going mainstream and Watching those videos really excited me wish it could be used to clear the current backlog but unfortunately the technology is still in test mode.

[aardvark15]

https://medium.com/@lightning_network/lightning-protocol-1-0-compatibility-achieved-f9d22b7b19c4



HUGE news. Version 1.0 tested using real Bitcoin. Maybe LN really will come out in 2018.

BULLISH!

Bitcoin taking over the world confirmed! ;p

$100k 2018 if this is in use by end of the summer.

Maybe this will help confirm my transaction that has been unconfirmed for about 30 hours. The transaction times are way too long right now and the fees are too high as well. If Bitcoin can get these two things fixed, then Bitcoin could be more than just a store of value.

I think these things if not addressed will hold Bitcoin back from all the potential it has to be a dominant world currency in the future.

[nl247]

I think stuff like that gets priced it long before it hits the news, it takes just one person who knows about tests to tell about it to traders and boom, there you have it - a new portion of speculation and price rise. Maybe it will still take a long time before Lightning will get deployed, even more time before it will become widely adopted, and maybe it won't solve all problems because it's just the first attempt at offchain solutions, but it would still demonstrate that Bitcoin can evolve, which is indeed extremely bullish - even now Bitcoin is very valuable because it works well as store of value like gold, but if you will be able to build more stuff on top of it, than it would be more valuable than real gold.

Sure it may cause some really quick adoption, but that does not really mean traders will just start acting on the news. Don't get me wrong, most traders deal with the news but they mainly focus on the chart activities and that is what drives their decisions, while all these LN is just like a story to them. However, the investors and those who really want to make use of bitcoin are the ones who would be more interested and with the LN being deployed, this would make things even better for usage as a currency that bitcoin really is and even make the value and the demand to rise even further.

[thecodebear]

https://medium.com/@lightning_network/lightning-protocol-1-0-compatibility-achieved-f9d22b7b19c4



HUGE news. Version 1.0 tested using real Bitcoin. Maybe LN really will come out in 2018.

BULLISH!

Bitcoin taking over the world confirmed! ;p

$100k 2018 if this is in use by end of the summer.

Maybe this will help confirm my transaction that has been unconfirmed for about 30 hours. The transaction times are way too long right now and the fees are too high as well. If Bitcoin can get these two things fixed, then Bitcoin could be more than just a store of value.

I think these things if not addressed will hold Bitcoin back from all the potential it has to be a dominant world currency in the future.

Without these things Bitcoin won't even be a store of value. Bitcoin isn't a store of value just because it's a capped supply and "brand name" recognition. It is a store of value (and a exponentially increasing value) because people believe it is the future of payments (and with capped supply that is why they believe it will be much more valuable in the future). Without LN or some other solution not only is Bitcoin held back, its current store of value and investment asset ability goes completely out the window and leaves room for an altcoin that does solve those problems to replace it.

[wuvdoll]

It has to come out. More people than ever are finding their way into Bitcoin, and what they are dealing with are the steep fees that in their eyes may look massive. It not only deals with the transaction fees, but also with the confirmation times that happen to be a bother to people. It's indeed bullish, but as long as there isn't an actual date, it can basically take till the end of 2018 if it isn't longer. Overall, it's giving people something to look forward to despite of how much we have been spoiled already with how this market has gone up. We're building up something special here, and I'll keep holding through.

Do not worry bro! At least the Ethereum most people have been praising has shown them what they really needed to know. Bitcoin is still the king and every other coin is just a counterfeit as far as I am concerned. This is great news and once this starts, I am really imagining how the mainstream entrance is going to be like.

Great times ahead and I hope there won't be any complications in the long run and since the devs have mentioned there would always be room for upgrades, I guess we will just keep getting better and better.

[Lucius]

It is certainly good news that something positive happening around Lightning Network,but is still unknown when it will be implemented and when it will experience its full use.I hope we will not see similar development situation as with SegWit which is there for months but has not yet fully come to daily using.

I think that Lightning Network&SegWit are best solution we have in this moment and they can solve BTC scalability,but on the other hand miners certainly do not look to happy to lose profit from high fees.Since they have too much power in their hands to full use of this solutions we will probably have to wait for some time.

[vv181]

That is insane I thought it still needs more time to be able to complete lighting network. So is Bitcoin is officially run lightning network now? Is there any visible performance different?

I would like to see a technical comparison between Bitcoin before they applied it and after they applied the lightning network.

[Dux2K]

Good bless bitcoin and all bitcoin and crypto users.
Day finally come how we enjoy.