Some Lightning channels up on mainnet. Should this be encouraged?

[Wind_FURY]

There are some Bitcoiners declaring on social media that they have already started to open Lightning channels and started to send Bitcoins with them.

Should this be encouraged by the Lightning developers? I believe it is irresponsible because it has not been fully tested in the testnet. People might lose their coins.

Achow, Carlton, what are your opinions on this?

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[RGBKey]

I know Elizabeth Stark of Lightning Labs has spoken out against it, and so has jimmymow, creator of the LN desktop wallet Zap. Pretty much everybody working on LN is saying to not do it, because people don't know what they're doing, the technology isn't ready and breaking changes are being made all the time (that's why they're testing on testnet), and when things go wrong with it before it's ready, people will be less likely to try it again.

It definitely isn't being encouraged by any lightning developers, save maybe Blockstream themselves and they even have a big fat warning label on their website.

[onnz423]

I would say this should be strongly discouraged whilst the LN is still in its developmental phases. If something goes wrong now, it could damage faith in the LN as a means of bitcoin scaling, which could either damage the reputation of bitcoin as a competitor to VISA, or allow bitcoin to be eclipsed by an altcoin which has scaled successfully. However, I do believe that those using the LN channels will likely be bitcoin veterans, so it is unlikely they'll get into it without prior knowledge of the risks.

[warning_btc]

I think in bitcoin core developers know what she doing.
Its not a shitfork of btc, where can something going wrong

[Spendulus]

There are some Bitcoiners declaring on social media that they have already started to open Lightning channels and started to send Bitcoins with them.

Should this be encouraged by the Lightning developers? I believe it is irresponsible because it has not been fully tested in the testnet. People might lose their coins.

Achow, Carlton, what are your opinions on this?

Well how about PLAYING with it? Like, let's play with it nothing moving over $1USD.

[TheQuin]

Well how about PLAYING with it? Like, let's play with it nothing moving over $1USD.

I would agree with this. When people are prepared to take small risks it is how thing move along. The recent news that Torguard is excepting payment over LN for example.

https://news.bitcoin.com/vpn-provider-now-accepts-lightning-network-payments/

There's a great quote in there:

“Disclaimer: c-lightning is not production ready — Torguard will cover the loss of funds when sending us LN payments — Testnet is so boring”

That's the kind of attitude that gets things done.

[Carlton Banks]

Well how about PLAYING with it? Like, let's play with it nothing moving over $1USD.

Beta Lightning protocol already has upper limits (max 0.16777216 per channel, and 0.04194304 per transaction). Higher than 1$, sure, but that should give you an idea of how the developers feel about this (and those limits are intended to stay once Lightning is officially endorsed for use by the devs, although they're set to be revised later)

I guess the same advice maxim for investing applies: don't put into Lightning more than you can afford to lose (0.16777216 BTC is alot of money these days)

[crypto33]

I read somewhere the Blockstream are encouraging people to test LN on the mainnet as opposed to the testnet, I'll try and find the link if I can and post it here.

A little irresponsible if you ask me, but then I'm not the biggest fan of BS anyway...

[superresistant]

 
There is right now 83 channels holding a total of 1 BTC.
Nothing to be worried about.




https://p2sh.info/dashboard/db/lightning-network?orgId=1

[Rinaze]

This show how much BTC needs LN at the moment. BTC won't be going back up to 16k anytime soon without LN (working properly) in term of speculation and in term of tech, BTC has been rendered useless for awhile now - 2 out of the only 3 major companies that were accepting BTC has to drop it because of the high transaction fees and SUPER DUPER LONG transfer time.

[bluemongrel]

It's still beta, I rather not risk it. Also, listen to the creators.

[cellard]

Well, someone has to take the risk and tbe the traiblazer that does so. Blockstream have a shop accepting bitcoin payments now (nothing serious, just t-shirts and stickers), and some guy bought a router from TorGuard:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7rkunw/lightning_the_future_just_arrived_at_my_doorstep/

And the router arrived:

https://imgur.com/a/2KEQ7

So this could be the first ever lightning transaction for a real product. Those that take the risks make history. At least he will be able to say to his kids that he did that.

[Wind_FURY]

I wish Blockstream, being a reputable company in Bitcoin, did not encourage its use. Not yet anyway. I would say that this is a little reckless on their part.

But I have to admit it looks every exciting and all the big blocker propagandist's statements about it being "centralized" are proven to be wrong.

[DooMAD]

Just over 1.6 BTC across nearly 250 channels on mainnet.  No sign of any hiccups so far.  It all appears pretty sensible and people are keeping the hype to a minimum.  I'd say this all bodes pretty well for the future.

I wish Blockstream, being a reputable company in Bitcoin, did not encourage its use. Not yet anyway. I would say that this is a little reckless on their part.

Obviously they shouldn't be encouraging just anyone to give it a try, particularly inexperienced newcomers.  That would indeed be reckless.  But for the experienced, technical users who know exactly what they're doing, that's probably okay.  Plus, the caps on the amounts you can currently send are there for a reason.  If something did go wrong, it shouldn't result in heavy losses.

There's a great quote in there:

“Disclaimer: c-lightning is not production ready — Torguard will cover the loss of funds when sending us LN payments — Testnet is so boring”

That's the kind of attitude that gets things done.

I'm genuinely impressed by such a strong level of commitment on their part.  Highly commendable, provided they do what they claim to if the need does arise.

[Kprawn]

Playing around with small amounts should not be discouraged. The more channels doing this, the quicker this will go from

Beta testing to full implementation. I see the TestNet as the Alpha testing phase.  ..... We are not talking about millions of

dollars yet, so it is still manageable.    .... I am biased, because I cannot wait for LN to go mainstream. 

[bitcoinmagneto]

I am not completely against it rather i believe that by using small amounts by a large no of people can fasten it's testing can be done but encourage it a lot a also cost a large amount of fortune to the bitcoinusers . Based on the recent testings i have seen it has a promising future.