What does the Lightning Network need to become mainstream?

[Bitcasino.io Support]

Hi guys,

The Lightning Network is the brainchild of the mysterious brains of Bitcoin who came together with the intention of solving their
growing blockchain scalability concerns.

Unfortunately, the Lightning Network is not as mainstream as you might think.

But why and what can be done?

Find out here: The Lightning Network and the rise of wBTC.

What do you think about the future of the Lightning Network?

Cheers,
Karl
Bitcasino.io

[OcTradism]

Lightning network is the future but a few years passed since it was born and there are not many achievements, adoption and developments on LN.

The Lightning network and its usages can be grown more. There are few minor companies accept LN.
https://ln.pizza/
https://lightningnetworkstores.com/

Basics of the Lightning Network
[Tutorial] How to create Lightning Network Channel (Testnet BTC)

[GGUL]

LN is a stillborn project. After 2.5 years, does anyone still doubt this? Tell this to "mysterious brains of Bitcoin".

[avikz]

LN is the future of bitcoin and you have already mentioned in your article why it is the future!

Card giant, Visa, has the capacity to process 24,000 transactions per second, whereas Bitcoin can only handle 7 transactions per second.

Whenever bitcoin price goes up, we all face network slowness and increased fees per transaction. People who are just sitting on their bitcoin horde, doesn't feel the issue. But whoever is active in transactions, definitely feel the blues!

I think LN has not yet garnered desired attention just because of lack of awareness and lack of a rebost marketing plan. Now LN is not a business entity so a professional marketing plan can't be expected from the developers team.

But I am sure as Bitcoin goes more and more mainstream, the users will be forced to move to LN because the scalability issue is real! Let's hope for the best!

[GGUL]

But I am sure as Bitcoin goes more and more mainstream, the users will be forced to move to LN because the scalability issue is real! Let's hope for the best!

Bitcoin is a decentralized free system. No one can force someone to do something against their will. People will simply switch to another  blockchain. The example with wbtc from the article above clearly demonstrates this.

It's time to set the deadline date for Ln. Then forget about this project and started moving forward. We have already lost 5 years in development.

[Charles-Tim]

It's time to set the deadline date for Ln. Then forget about this project and started moving forward. We have already lost 5 years in development.

I think you should read the quote below. And also recently this year, the famous electrum wallet support lightning network, with time, all other common wallets will support lightning network. At least, its adoption is growing gradually.

Unfortunately, the Lightning Network is not as mainstream as you might think. Although its adoption is growing gradually, it’s been found that there are currently more WBTC locked in the Ethereum network compared to BTC in the Lightning Network

[bob123]

A lot of people seem to not have a clue about the current development status of the LN, just like this guy:

LN is pretty much a dead way of transacting, not many people use it and I dont see it being mainstream in future, the technology is weak but the idea is good, won't have success.

The LN is not "dead". It is still under development and not ready yet. You can test it and play around with small amounts, but it didn't even reach beta yet.

So what exactly do you all expect? It is being developed and tested. No one wants to lose money because of a severe bug or vulnerability. The whole process takes time.
And it will take many more years until it becomes fully operational.

[Rikafip]

I honestly haven't tried the LN yet, but i know some people that did, and from what I heard from them, it is quite complicated to get this thing going. At least it was approximately six months ago when we talked about it. I was  thinking about trying it, (I read some guides here on bitcointalk) but their comments kinda cooled me off as they are more tech savvy than I am (which it shouldn't really matter and is wrong approach but well)..

I don't know is it really that complicated or there are some improvements in that regard, but ease of use will always be a key thing for adoption. Same thing goes to crypto in general, once it gets very simple to use it, it will spread among the mainstream. I guess it goes the same for LN as well.

[Sanugarid]

But I am sure as Bitcoin goes more and more mainstream, the users will be forced to move to LN because the scalability issue is real! Let's hope for the best!

Bitcoin is a decentralized free system. No one can force someone to do something against their will. People will simply switch to another  blockchain. The example with wbtc from the article above clearly demonstrates this.

As what you have said, bitcoin is running in decentralized system, that means the core of it was just a pure belief of the mass. Now this belief of them/us has grown this huge that even a better coin can't replace the dominance of bitcoin in the market and still at the top of the crypto market, and now we are facing a huge potential of being adopted globally. People can easily give bitcoin up and switch to another coin, another blockchain that has a faster network and better scalability, but why is it bitcoin is still at thousand $ ? The simple answer is that because it is Bitcoin.

It's time to set the deadline date for Ln. Then forget about this project and started moving forward. We have already lost 5 years in development.

It is better late than never, if this project aims for a better speed and scalability it will take a long time for it to happen, 5 years is just a minute for this development.

[ChiBitCTy]

This is a great question that I've been asking myself quite a bit the last year or so.  I have used the Lightning Network myself before.  I opened a wallet on Android and joined a buddies LN Channel.  I made a few transactions to test the network and see how quick it really was and it was everything that people have been saying.  That said it was difficult to use and not straight forward.  We've been hearing about LN for quite some time so I just don't see why it's taking so long.  I also pray that it doesn't end up making bitcoin anonymous, like Monero.  I think that'll spell trouble for bitcoin by governments.

[Naida_BR]

LN is pretty much a dead way of transacting, not many people use it and I dont see it being mainstream in future, the technology is weak but the idea is good, won't have success.

There are a lot of people that use Lighting Network especially those who believe in Bitcoin.
It will become mainstream only if Lightning network is going to be easily used by anyone (for example if my grandpa is able to use LN) then it will be a mainstream way of payment method.

[stompix]

Unfortunately, the Lightning Network is not as mainstream as you might think.

Who thinks that?
Not even Bitcoin is mainstream, it does around 300-400k transactions a day, that's 0.5% of the number of customers McDonald's has daily.

We're going to have to wait a lot for LN to become mainstream, and it's not that much about embracing the technology as it is about the willingness to use it, people like to hodl not to spedn.

But I am sure as Bitcoin goes more and more mainstream, the users will be forced to move to LN because the scalability issue is real! Let's hope for the best!

Bitcoin is a decentralized free system. No one can force someone to do something against their will. People will simply switch to another  blockchain.

Well, that's forcing people!
Just like your car breaking all-time is forcing you to either repair it or buy another one.
There is no authority telling you to do that, but you do it because you're being forced by the constant repair bills and breakdowns, just as users would be forced by high fees or long confirmation times.

[BrewMaster]

LN is pretty much a dead way of transacting, not many people use it and I dont see it being mainstream in future, the technology is weak but the idea is good, won't have success.

LN is a stillborn project. After 2.5 years, does anyone still doubt this? Tell this to "mysterious brains of Bitcoin".

"dead" is an altcoin that is barely used that can't even fill 100 kilo bytes of its blocks after 2.5 years. but LN that has been handling a thousand times more transactions than those altcoins is well alive. the current capacity of it is over $10 million with nearly 14000 nodes. most altcoins don't even have 1200 nodes.

[pawanjain]

I guess it is too soon to comment anything on the Lightning network because it is not yet a fully operational payment system.
Bitcoin itself is still at it's early stage and so Lightning network is still far from going mainstream.
Consider another 10 years at least for Lightning network to be used by the global community.

[GGUL]

LN is pretty much a dead way of transacting, not many people use it and I dont see it being mainstream in future, the technology is weak but the idea is good, won't have success.

LN is a stillborn project. After 2.5 years, does anyone still doubt this? Tell this to "mysterious brains of Bitcoin".

"dead" is an altcoin that is barely used that can't even fill 100 kilo bytes of its blocks after 2.5 years. but LN that has been handling a thousand times more transactions than those altcoins is well alive. the current capacity of it is over $10 million with nearly 14000 nodes. most altcoins don't even have 1200 nodes.

Why drag some altcoin here? We are discussing LN.

The current number of active LN nodes is 7500. 6500 are no longer active, they are dead. Why specify that the nodes in LN is 14000? Who are you kidding? Yourself?

The current capacity is 1060btc, which is 0.006% of the total amount of BTC. A year ago, it was 850btc. Only 210 btc per year.

Compare nodes in blockchains and nodes in LN is to compare apples and oranges. If you don't understand this, then you don't know anything about LN.

So what exactly do you all expect? It is being developed and tested. No one wants to lose money because of a severe bug or vulnerability. The whole process takes time.
And it will take many more years until it becomes fully operational.

I think that's what LN developers say when they want to get the next tranche of funding.

[OcTradism]

@jackg has Overview of lightning network nodes owned by forum users.

[kryptqnick]

LN is a stillborn project. After 2.5 years, does anyone still doubt this? Tell this to "mysterious brains of Bitcoin".

My view is close to this one, unfortunately. The LN sounds exciting in theory, but it's been years without major improvements or encouragement of people to use it. About a year ago, I still thought it could change and become globally adopted because something has to solve the scalability issue and the LN seems like a good candidate. But I thought it were possible only had the LN team made it way more user-friendly. As far as I know, this didn't happen. And unless the LN is no harder to use than a typical crypto wallet, it won't get major adoption. Not to mention that some people would never use it anyway due to centralization and/or Bitcoin maximalist concerns.
So now I barely have any hope for LN. I do hope that something better arises soon, 'cause we'll need it.

[swogerino]

The LN started really good as far as I remember.It started by promising to us that it would solve that scalability issue.However I have not seen a final solution to this yet probably because is still a newborn project as you say.
I am not much into this but I like to think that BTC will grow and we all will profit from this.

[shoreno]

The LN started really good as far as I remember.It started by promising to us that it would solve that scalability issue.However I have not seen a final solution to this yet probably because is still a newborn project as you say.
I am not much into this but I like to think that BTC will grow and we all will profit from this.

yes i remember that time too . it was verry popular the time it was introduced and few weeks/months later it suddenly missing in action  . you havent seen its final form because the project is still developing and its not a newborn project because it was over 2 years now .with that much time , l.n supposed to improve alot and many are now using it but thats not seem to be the case that happen .

Re: What does the Lightning Network need to become mainstream?

because its not mainstream till this date , that is why . this project needs more exposure or promotions  .

[beerlover]

There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to move towards Lightning network or maybe some other new high level technology that will come after that, after all we are paying too much money for bitcoin transactions right now (and eth as well) and it takes too much time to get there as well, I do not want to pay 10 bucks for something that will send my money in 30 to 40 minutes, even an hour at times, that is not acceptable.

Bitcoin is something special and that is why even with this current situation we are not going down, but I doubt that it could have a feasible future as a "currency" without fixing this first, could it be LN that will help us? Maybe, maybe it won't be, we all saw it and know it yet humanity hasn't moved to that just yet, maybe we are waiting for something better. No matter what the end result is, I am sure we will move to something faster and cheaper.