Lightning Network Now On Par With Apple Pay

[linzerdshaffen]

The lightning network is now being compared with Apple Pay. With wallets like Wallet of Satoshi that simplify the use and onboarding of users, Lightning Network is really starting to lift off. What do you think of this? Will Lightning take off this year? Or will it take more time to see it shine?
Source: https://www.btcnn.com/cryptocurrency-news/lightning-network-payment-procedure-now-on-par-with-apple-pay/

[joniboini]

Optimism is good but I think this is too much. We've got a long way to go before we can call it on par with Apple Pay. Using Apple Pay or something similar is faster and familiar for most user atm, so the first step would be to increase people interest in using Bitcoin as a medium of payment.

Anyway, the news is kinda old isn't it? It takes a snapshot of some tweet on Jan 15th. Looks like another mediocre crypto news site to me.

Edit: just realized OP is suddenly active with posting news from that site. Meh.

[franky1]

^ an article of optimism and hype and over promise

funny part.
"LN can rub shoulders by only being a few seconds slower then apple pay"
research on timings is used in a scenario of 'design to work' AKA perfect conditions test
rather than normal/random situation where scenario is not done in perfect/biased conditions

even the actual LN dev's admit there are flaws in LN

yet more over hype over promise.. (facepalm)

[pooya87]

even the actual LN dev's admit there are flaws in LN

there are flaws in everything, we are living in a not-perfect world. but having flaws doesn't make them bad. take bitcoin itself, it is filled with flaws but it is still one of the best things that has been created.
as for LN, OP is just creating clickbaits and advertises them here for traffic obviously but that doesn't mean he is all wrong. LN is not yet on par with anything because size (as in capacity of lightning network) is not the only factor, the number of merchants and payments done is the important part and while we are still not there yet we are on a good path.

[jseverson]

The lightning network is now being compared with Apple Pay. With wallets like Wallet of Satoshi that simplify the use and onboarding of users, Lightning Network is really starting to lift off. What do you think of this? Will Lightning take off this year? Or will it take more time to see it shine?

IMO you're going to have to sell the idea of Bitcoin to consumers first, as they're not going to be switching from tried and tested methods only to achieve basically the same end results. It has to be noted that most people won't care about what's going on under the hood for as long as it's convenient for them.

The title is kind of misleading as the comparison is solely about speed, but it's still quite encouraging.

[eternalgloom]

The article itself mentions that Apple Pay is faster in day-to-day use than Lightning Network.

However, in everyday scenarios, Apple Pay still tops the LN in terms of speed, being a “couple of seconds” faster when it comes to payment settlement.

That's what ultimately matters most, right?
You can't really use transaction speed data that's being measured in near perfect conditions, to prove the point that LN is faster.

[Ucy]

Hope it does take off this year or no distant time. It has what it takes to displace other payment procssors. It could end up becoming the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes after displacing other well known payment processors

[franky1]

even the actual LN dev's admit there are flaws in LN

there are flaws in everything, we are living in a not-perfect world. but having flaws doesn't make them bad. take bitcoin itself, it is filled with flaws but it is still one of the best things that has been created.
as for LN, OP is just creating clickbaits and advertises them here for traffic obviously but that doesn't mean he is all wrong. LN is not yet on par with anything because size (as in capacity of lightning network) is not the only factor, the number of merchants and payments done is the important part and while we are still not there yet we are on a good path.

LN is not on par because
article said to fund applepay took 5 minutes. to fund LN in the scenario took 5 minutes..only a few seconds apart

funny part is a confirm averages ~10minutes.. so the articles scenario was a over optimistic, best case.. to even get near 5 minutes.
other over optimistic assumptions is having a direct channel with merchant as oppose to require routing and the issues, flaws delays of such
other over optimistic assumptions is having destination online to receive payment
other over optimistic assumptions is if routed, the route paths are online funded, always available

LN. is nothing like bitcoin. bitcoin can be sent day or night and as soon as confirmed the destination is guaranteed received funds. LN is like handing out an uncleared cheque(iou) with no guarantee of clearing(confirming at settlement)

[Kakmakr]

Well, Tim Cook bragged that Apple pay were doing over 1 Billion transactions during Q3 of 2018, so it is surely some good competition for many other centralized payment systems. If you take the capital investment needed to continue funding the 200% growth of centralized payment systems in comparison with the cost of scaling solutions like the Lightning Network, then Apple pay will soon run into problems.

The Lightning Network is being funded from the community that supports the Bitcoin network and are not reliant on a centralized service to keep funding it. 

[alisafidel58]

If you take the capital investment needed to continue funding the 200% growth of centralized payment systems in comparison with the cost of scaling solutions like the Lightning Network, then Apple pay will soon run into problems.

I doubt that Apple pay can't handle the problem if they manage to run into. Apple is one of the biggest company in the world and No.1 in Forbes rankings and with the brand value of 182.8B dollars. I'm sure that whatever problem that they might face in the future regarding its transaction they can find a solution to that.

[jademaxsuy]

It will depend on the results of the new system integrated to it. If it will.be most likely to.create a positive impact with  the new update then definitely it will soar high like bitcoin did and there is a possibility that it will going to surpass bitcoin though it will take some time.

More coin will going to use the platform also that would be best for the network to test its features.

[avikz]

If you take the capital investment needed to continue funding the 200% growth of centralized payment systems in comparison with the cost of scaling solutions like the Lightning Network, then Apple pay will soon run into problems.

I doubt that Apple pay can't handle the problem if they manage to run into. Apple is one of the biggest company in the world and No.1 in Forbes rankings and with the brand value of 182.8B dollars. I'm sure that whatever problem that they might face in the future regarding its transaction they can find a solution to that.

Obviously they can because they are sitting on world's largest privately held cash reserve. They can handle any internal situation they run into. However, that doesn't mean others won't be able to design a solution!

Slow transaction speed and high fees during higher volume is indeed a problem that LN and only LN is trying to solve! Every system initially runs into challenges and slowly they bridge those gaps. LN also has flaws which the dev team is trying to bridge! That's the reason LN has been delayed several times!

Apple pay should not be the target, rather it should just be a milestone which we will cross eventually! The success of Apple didn't come overnight so we have to be patient!

[traderethereum]

Hope it does take off this year or no distant time. It has what it takes to displace other payment procssors. It could end up becoming the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes after displacing other well known payment processors

Although it could be possible to happen, I am not sure if that will take off in this year because there is another preparation that still needed. And for the take off, it is not easy as we can say because I am sure that they will check if all procedures are ready to go so there will be no problem in the future. They could still do trial and error first before it's published and if there is something wrong happens, they can fix it before it's too late to fix.

[kryptqnick]

It was already mentioned that even the scenario with transaction speed is not very realistic, and that they actually get confirmed slower. I'd also like to add that there are other factors by which the Lightning Network is very far from Apple Pay (probably not a year away as some hope). I could not find the information online, but it's clear that the network has way less users that Apple. Even the total number of Bitcoin users is very far from being comparable with Apple Pay. Moreover, there's this problem that with the amount of users growing, the network will get busier, leading to transactions getting confirmed longer and for more money (or so I've read). Lightning Network is an itneresting project, but it seems that it's not a viable long-term solution of Bitcoin's scalability problem.

[BrewMaster]

LN is growing fast but unfortunately the biggest problem with lightning network is going to be the high fees of bitcoin's on-chain transctions and as long as they remain high the second layer can not gain traction either. what we are seeing these days is mostly the enthusiasts running LN nodes and making payments for small stuff based on what i have seen. what we need is lower fees on chain and then more real adoption of LN by big businesses so that we can see it pick up.