LIGHTNING NETWORK - what is happening, dead, stagnant?

[ggbtctalk000]

I looked at statistics, the usage went up around last half 2019 then tapered off. looks like not that terrribly popular although not died.
IT seems stagnated. Are there benefits starting to weigh in?
I wonder if major wallets are supporting or starting to support LN?

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[Pmalek]

According to these stats, the number of nodes and channels are slowly increasing. I am not sure how accurate this data is.
What stats have you read? Please share the sources so we can take a look.


Source: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/lightning

[darosior]

I looked at statistics, the usage went up around last half 2019 then tapered off. looks like not that terrribly popular although not died.

Good news, less people open public channels and expose suboptimal routing nodes :-)

IT seems stagnated. Are there benefits starting to weigh in?

Do you mean no technical improvements ? If so, LOL.

I wonder if major wallets are supporting or starting to support LN?

Electrum

[AlexPCS]

I would say Lightning network is doing okay. Nothing breakthrough lately, but development keeps going on, adoption is gradually growing. I personally admire bitrefill+lightning integration. Lightning just perfectly fits in there: topping up all kinds of service, mobile network providers etc. worldwide has never been easier.

[Rath_]

Nothing breakthrough lately [...]

Oh, come on. Multipart payments, funding (multiple) channels (at once) from external wallets which support PSBT, payments without an invoice are not breakthrough enough?

[AlexPCS]

Nothing breakthrough lately [...]

Oh, come on. Multipart payments, funding (multiple) channels (at once) from external wallets which support PSBT, payments without an invoice are not breakthrough enough?

Yeah, you are totally right of course ) With regards to "breakthrough" I was referring more to adoption - like a country which gave up SWIFT for Lightning - that would be a real breakthrough, I guess 

[hugeblack]

As for the adoption, it will be gradual. Once you start the major platforms and the famous wallets that are known to be implemented, you will find that people have taken care of it and started using it.
It's similar to segwit, there are still a lot of lazy developers who haven't yet updated their code.

Electrum

Many things will change if Electrum launches the version that supports the Lightning Network.
I don’t know how long you will wait, but it will be amazing.

[Pffrt]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

[ggbtctalk000]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

someone above said electrum did implement?

[Yaunfitda]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

someone above said electrum did implement?

It is not yet implement, it is still under development.

Presentation link: https://www.electrum.org/talks/lightning/presentation.html#slide1
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D83IpdiF-U

But as @hugeblack pointed out, once well known wallet like Electrum supports LN, growth will be inevitable.

[MicroGuy]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

Lightning is an L2 network that exposes node operators to regulatory oversight and robs Tx fees from Bitcoin miners.

[ggbtctalk000]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

Lightning is an L2 network that exposes node operators to regulatory oversight and robs Tx fees from Bitcoin miners.

L2  is a key word if one can not memorize or trouble understanding the LN. Robbing tx fees is something I am hearing first time. Any source on technical background on this?

[MicroGuy]

Most people yet don't know what Lightning Network is till now. Couple of days ago, I had started a discussion topic on one of our local facebook group on Lightning Network. Almost 90% of the people seems to be never heard about Lightning Network while some other who have heard about Lightning Network but don't have any idea what it is. Without implementation in common wallets like Electrum, LN will not be known to the public. Once Electrum implement it, things will be different.

Lightning is an L2 network that exposes node operators to regulatory oversight and robs Tx fees from Bitcoin miners.

L2  is a key word if one can not memorize or trouble understanding the LN. Robbing tx fees is something I am hearing first time. Any source on technical background on this?

Miners get fees for Txs that occur on the main blockchain. If those transactions occur on L2 networks, they no longer get those fees.

Feel free to ask any follow up questions.

[davis196]

I looked at statistics, the usage went up around last half 2019 then tapered off. looks like not that terrribly popular although not died.
IT seems stagnated. Are there benefits starting to weigh in?
I wonder if major wallets are supporting or starting to support LN?

LN is definitely not stagnant or dying,but it's definitely not growing rapidly.BTC transactions on the chain are fast enough,so there's no need to such offchain solutions like LN right now.I don't see any major benefits of using the Lightning Network right now.Maybe when the Bitcoin Core blockchain gets stuck again and the overall transaction fees and confirmation time increases,many BTC users might start using LN for a while.
However,I don't believe that the die hard Bitcoin Core fans will ever adopt LN.

[Kakmakr]

The majority of the world is in lockdown at the moment, so I think the "word of mouth" with direct interaction of people might slow down a little. Yes, people still communicate via Social media and Apps like WhatsApp, but it is just not the same.

The lockdown will also have a positive impact on the development side, because there are a lot less distraction for developers and they can spend more time working on improvements for the Lightning Network.  

Also, many companies and small businesses are closed now, so you would expect that decisions like this might be put on the back burner for now.  

[Little Mouse]

Miners get fees for Txs that occur on the main blockchain. If those transactions occur on L2 networks, they no longer get those fees.

Are we able to confirm all the tx with the limit of 1 MB block size? For getting confirmed on next block, sometimes the fee increased to $10 even, is not it too high? On chain tx requires longer time and higher fee while LN gives instant confirmation with lower fee.

[mocacinno]

About electrum: HCP compiled version 4 of electrum for windows (alpha software), here's a link where you can read about it, including a link to the repo i created for him:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5221146.msg54134180#msg54134180

I trust HCP, i've seen him handle other people's funds without any issues. That being said, i wouldn't run alpha software on the main net, but this compiled version should be ok on the testnet. If you don't trust HCP, you can always use sandboxie to run version 4.0.0.a on the testnet in a sandbox if you want to try it out

[Wind_FURY]

I believe, for higher rate of adoption, Lightning wallets/node developers should also implement what BlueWallet has done. It's custodial ONLY FOR Lightning, which you can use after install.

[mk4]

Development and adoption is still slowly in an upward trend. It's just that lightning's adoption isn't growing as much as people want to, as it's pretty evident that people in the cryptocurrency space are a bit too short-term focused.

And to add to that, a lot of crypto people are stuck at old narratives, thinking that there's nothing happening to LN. I mean, some crypto people that likes shilling shitcoins even think transaction fees are still in the $30-$50 range like what we had in the peak of 2017.

[ggbtctalk000]

I looked at statistics, the usage went up around last half 2019 then tapered off. looks like not that terrribly popular although not died.
IT seems stagnated. Are there benefits starting to weigh in?
I wonder if major wallets are supporting or starting to support LN?

LN is definitely not stagnant or dying,but it's definitely not growing rapidly.BTC transactions on the chain are fast enough,so there's no need to such offchain solutions like LN right now.I don't see any major benefits of using the Lightning Network right now.Maybe when the Bitcoin Core blockchain gets stuck again and the overall transaction fees and confirmation time increases,many BTC users might start using LN for a while.
However,I don't believe that the die hard Bitcoin Core fans will ever adopt LN.

i would consider myself diehard bitcoin core fan due to extensive studies I made in the past, but I am for LN, if not for LN, how are you going to solve the 7 transaction / second problem?