I thought this was a very good speech from the lead dev of Actinium (website:
https://actinium.org/) in their discord:
brakmic-Today at 11:51 AM
Maybe I should write a few words on why our coin could in the future become very valuable regarding Lightning Network and the whole LN-landscape that's about to emerge.
I will simply write a few sentences, so you can later discuss about it, and of course criticize it.
So, let's begin...
Currently, the blockchain technology is anything but usable for real-world transactions. We all know it and no matter how strong you "believe in blockchain and Bitcoin", it simply makes no sense to sell "the blockchain" as the solution for the complex banking system.
The Blockchain might be less complex, but it's also completely and utterly unusable to sustain such a complex beast like our planetary available finance system.
Hate SWIFT and other monsters as much you like, but they actually work. Yes, they are slow and censored and everything else, but they actually work.
Therefore, we need something that could be faster, more secure, and less censorable (or at best: non-censorable).
And also, the blockchain has its benefits still.
It can serve us well as a settlement layer.
The Blockchain doesn't need to know about your latest overpriced Starbucks Coffee, I think.
Which in fact means: the planet doesn't need to know that you have bought something like a coffee.
Enter Lightning Network.
It's a network of nodes, just like those from Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Actinium.
But the connections between them are more stateful, and we call them channels.
For example, you take your Bitcoin node, and reconfigure it to become a participating LN-node.
This means that you take a few BTC and fill the LN-node with it. This way your BTC will remain locked in your LN-node.
From now on you can't use those BTC for anything else except LN-transactions.
brakmic-Today at 12:00 PM
And to make such transactions you have to open a channel to another node. And keep it alive.
Now the problem arises with the fact that you can only make transactions with that other node and this is not that exciting.
What you really want to have is a way to transact with everyone, so you can buy stuff from node A, sell it to node B, this node then sells to node X and so on.
To achieve this many nodes create many channels to many other nodes.
A big network of opened channels arises.
Now you can route your payments through other nodes to the exact destination.
But to achieve this all channels have to be properly funded.
If your node wants to send 1BTC but all the available channels have only 0.5BTC max. then you have a problem.
This is one of the current problems in LN (and I mean Bitcoin's LN).
The higher the amount of BTC you want to send the lesser the probability to find a perfect route.
Also, your LN-node must be online to send/receive payments.
You are actually running a hot wallet all the time.
And hackers will love you for that.
Actually, only your BTC, you are not of any interest to them.
So, you see, there are many obstacles to be solved, many fights to be won.
Now, imagine this situation....
Some random guy, let's call him Harris, comes to you and tries to persuade you that the Lightning Network is the future.
And he is good at talking. Although he pretends to be a developer.
Now, would you like to lock up your precious BTC in a hot wallet only to run it in a beta network just for the sake of learning?
Of course you would!
Or maybe not?
But...
Now comes the really hard part.
How many of you have wished to have known about Bitcoin in the year 2009 or 2010?
Imagine: mining Bitcoin on a CPU. Alone in your room. With a laptop.
Maybe even chatting with Satoshi in bitcointalk?
Now, let's be honest to yourselves!
Do you really want to miss the second big shift in crypto?
Actinium is here for you. To be as cheap as possible, as transparent as possible, as experimental as possible, and as community-friendly as possible.
Whatever you learn now, whatever you try to experiment with now, will pay out in the future.
Most of us can't afford to invest or risk BTC in their beta network.
Even their developers say this is actually reckless.
But do you really want to wait until everybody, even your grandmas, know about Lightning Network?
Do you really want to miss out again?
Big things start small. And Lightning Network is practically invisible to most.
I once was against Lightning Network. I thought it was unusable.
And then I started to read, to experiment. Until I have grasped it. I have invested much time and also a considerable amount of money to "get it".
I came to the Lightning Network from the perspective of someone who "didn't like it".
The first person I had to persuade was myself.
And it was not easy. The hardest part are own prejudices.
With Actinium we can experiment by using cheap coins, and we don't have to think much about frauds and criminal activities.
It's different when you lose 1BTC and 1ACM.
The most important thing you can get out of Actinium is the knowledge about things that will become extremely important and very expensive to those who don't know about them.
Be the first person: know about it.
Most of us have already paid a high price for not having known about Bitcoin in 2009.
Actinium might fail. Might be forgotten by most of you. And this is actually nothing tragic.
The real tragedy is to repeat the same error again.
Americans say: trick me once shame on you, trick me twice shame on me.
Well, how many times should you trick yourself to be perceived as an idiot?
