Will the Lightning Network challenge VISA someday?

[Fundamentals Of]

Of course it will. Not just VISA but also other payment systems, all of them. If the Lightning Network is to be operating, it is a lot better than VISA. Imagine having instant, very cheap, pretty anonymous, decentralized, etc payment with Bitcoin. People will prefer it over VISA and other electronic payment systems. But I think VISA is not to be defeated easily. VISA knows that Bitcoin is the future. Before it is defeated, it has already turned itself a Bitcoin ally.

Blindly saying that it will replace almost any conventional payment system is not a good thing for this discussion. I don't know much about Lightning Network or VISA or how they process their transaction but what I can say is that if LN wants to topple VISA out of its throne, they have to match the infrastructure that VISA already has and provide a concrete evidence that they are faster than anything else. Maybe you are right that LN will replace other payment system, I sure do hope so, cutting the in-between for transactions is a good thing after all.

No one is blindly saying something will replace another. What did I say? I did not say LN will replace VISA, did I?

You saying that I am right that LN will replace other payment system is wrong because nowhere did I say that LN will replace other payment system.

OP's question is that, will the Lightning Network challenge VISA someday? My answer is yes. And it will challenge not just VISA but other payment systems also. To challenge the current payment systems is not to replace them.

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[Om.monata]

VISA has some of the biggest dedicated data centers engaged in all those rapid transactions over a centralized network. While the thought of having LN takeover Visa is tempting, it is really difficult for a network of voluntary, bootstrapped nodes with several bottlenecks to surpass the processing capabilities of dedicated hardware like the ones that companies like VISA employ.

LN by itself should be quite good for those of us who want to use BTC. While its a nice thought experiment, it isn't quite possible for even LN to change the status quo on this one.

sometimes this is the doubt of many parties. The experiment using LN seems to be ensured by its stable use, because if this goes well I think LN can replace VISA in the crypto transaction system.

[Abiky]

If the Lightning Network becomes:
1.As user-friendly as VISA.
2.Capable of handling as much transactions as VISA
Then yes,there's a small possibility for LN to challenge the domination of VISA.
There's another huge requirement-Bitcoin must become as mainstream as fiat money(which is less likely to happen).

What's the point of Paypal,VISA and Mastercard running LN nodes?Will they get any major benefit from this?

User-friendliness is a must for the LN to challenge VISA. Without it, I don't see mainstream adoption for Bitcoin's off-chain scalability solution going anywhere. So far, developers have failed with the task as the LN is somewhat complicated to use for the non tech-savvy person. Altcoins are far more easier to use than the LN, providing the same benefits of fast and cheap transactions for all (depending on the coin, of course). We're going to have to wait and see what happens in the future as developers continue to work hard on the project.

In the case of LN nodes, I think major companies will join the game once they see the true benefits of instant transactions and ultra-low fees. One of the benefits of running a routing node on the LN, is that you'll earn some small Bitcoin with each transaction performed on the off-chain solution. Of course, don't expect to earn a lot of money doing this. But it's better something than nothing. If companies like PayPal, VISA, and Mastercard run LN nodes, then adoption for micropayments on Bitcoin will soar like crazy. Right now the LN is in its infancy, so it'll take a long time before it'll be able to rival traditional payment processors anytime soon. Who knows what the future holds for Bitcoin's off-chain scaling solution? Just my opinion

[Dutchyyy]

Thanks to the Lightning Network, it's now possible for Bitcoin to provide instant, cheap transfers to everyone. Adoption for the off-chain scaling solution is low, in part because of the LN's complexity. Now, imagine an scenario where the Lightning Network becomes heavily adopted by people in the mainstream world. It could threaten the existence of traditional payment processors as we speak. While I don't know how much TPS the Lightning Network is able to process, I'm pretty sure it's near close as VISA.

Do you think the Lightning Network will be able to challenge VISA someday? If not why? What if traditional payment processors like PayPal, VISA, and Mastercard decide to run a LN node in the future? Will this benefit Bitcoin in the long run or not? Your input will be greatly appreciated.

Honestly, I don't follow this project closely, but I'm aware that many researchers have warned about a privacy vulnerability in the Lightning Network that could reveal financial information about Bitcoin transactions that were thought to be anonymous. Currently, Lightning Labs, Blockstream and ACINQ are the three main teams working on the development of the Lightning network.

And this is not the first time a vulnerability has been discovered in the Lightning network. Some time ago, the technical director of Lightning Labs, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, confirmed cases of common vulnerabilities and weaknesses (CVE), "exploited in [real situations]".

But otherwise you are right and apart from this bad news, this project is very good and there seems to be a great future.

[Bilgent]

As the Lightning Network means also 'Bitcoin', it really depends on the development of Bitcoin for Lightning Network to be able to challenge VISA in the future. I know that it seems like very hard for now but it is not impossible. Because Bitcoin has come a very long way so far and its value is so much bigger than its first years in the market. It proves that we could see Bitcoin and the Lightning Network at a much higher and better place in time.

[verita1]

I am not familiar with the Lightning Network. So I decided to do a search and came across the LN and Blockstream alliance.

This integration is intended for developers to make use of LN easier and more intuitive. The project is called Lightning Charge, which consists of the implementation through an API to accept Lightning payments, it is a fast integration and easy to configure.
The developers have found that LN can make faster transactions compared to VISA.

So what bitcoin is missing for the long-awaited massive adoption is development because there are already networks willing to make microtransactions faster and cheaper.

https://blockstream.com/lightning/

[Sithara007]

Let's concentrate on the basic things right now rather than making tall claims which will make us a laughing stock. Lightning acceptability is very low, even within the crypto sector. And here we are talking about challenging an established payment processor such as Visa. IMO, less than 10% of the Bitcoin users have ever used Lightning, as it is not very easy to use. We need to popularize Lightning among the Bitcoin users first, before talking about overtaking Visa.

[Abiky]

Let's concentrate on the basic things right now rather than making tall claims which will make us a laughing stock. Lightning acceptability is very low, even within the crypto sector. And here we are talking about challenging an established payment processor such as Visa. IMO, less than 10% of the Bitcoin users have ever used Lightning, as it is not very easy to use. We need to popularize Lightning among the Bitcoin users first, before talking about overtaking Visa.

That's certainly true, mate. The Lightning Network does come with a set of limitations,  which makes it a "terrible" challenger of existing payment processors. I hope this will change as the Lightning Network develops over time. It's all a matter of making off-chain solution easy enough for anyone to understand. Once developers do that, then LN's adoption will go all the way to the moon.

As far as I know, the Lightning Network has the capacity to overcome VISA in terms of TPS. Imagine how "threatening" the LN will be to VISA once people use it massively in the mainstream world. It would render current payment processors obsolete. The main reason why VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, and other payment processors exist is because they rely on Fiat currencies. Everyone knows that Fiat has greater adoption than Bitcoin in the mainstream world. Most people prefer stability and ease of use, so they'd choose Fiat over Bitcoin anytime. Because of these and many other reasons, we may be "lightyears" away from LN becoming a serious contender of VISA. Whenever the LN will become a success or a failure in the long run, will greatly depend on the community itself. Who knows what will happen with the LN as scalable blockchain networks (like BCH, BSV, and others) gain traction in the mainstream world? Just my thoughts

[MCobian]

If you look at the current situation, in my opinion it is impossible for the Lightning Network to challenge VISA, the popularity of VISA cannot be doubted.
Almost all countries accept payments using VISA, so from the legality of the law it is very safe to use VISA and also VISA is very easy to use. In contrast
to the Lightning Network which is quite complicated to use and even all Bitcoin users rarely use the Lightning Network. So if the Lightning Network wants
to challenge VISA it has to go mainstream first, and it may take a very long time for the Lightning Network to become popular.

[NeuroticFish]

the popularity of VISA cannot be doubted.

LN cannot compete with VISA, since VISA is centralized. Simple.
But it's not LN that's the main competitor at horizon for VISA/MC. It's the government issued stable coins. Those are to be coming soon and don't need this centralized service, since they'll have their own.
That's why VISA is trying hard to do something, anything, towards crypto. They need to innovate and adapt, else they'll be history soon and LN will "win" just by still existing.

[masterzino]

Thanks to the Lightning Network, it's now possible for Bitcoin to provide instant, cheap transfers to everyone. Adoption for the off-chain scaling solution is low, in part because of the LN's complexity. Now, imagine an scenario where the Lightning Network becomes heavily adopted by people in the mainstream world. It could threaten the existence of traditional payment processors as we speak. While I don't know how much TPS the Lightning Network is able to process, I'm pretty sure it's near close as VISA.

Do you think the Lightning Network will be able to challenge VISA someday? If not why? What if traditional payment processors like PayPal, VISA, and Mastercard decide to run a LN node in the future? Will this benefit Bitcoin in the long run or not? Your input will be greatly appreciated.

Nope.

What is much more plausible is VISA to adopt crypto/stablecoins (which they are testing right now) and then to use your crypto on every VISA logo store/shop.

VISA is very pro-crypto and friendly.

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https://cointelegraph.com/news/visa-will-facilitate-usdc-payments-thanks-to-fresh-partnership