Lightning Network Observer

[cAPSLOCK]

You're overblowing apparent 'issues' exponentially again, Franky.
Lightning is not perfect and is certainly not suited for every application, but there is no need to freak out over non-issues for the tenth time.

Wait.  Has it really only been ten times?  Seems like more.

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[DooMAD]

You're overblowing apparent 'issues' exponentially again, Franky.
Lightning is not perfect and is certainly not suited for every application, but there is no need to freak out over non-issues for the tenth time.

Wait.  Has it really only been ten times?  Seems like more.

Maybe just the tenth time in this particular topic?  It's honestly hard to keep track when he's having a meltdown about "subnetworks" (or, for sane people, "layer 2") in pretty much every thread.

[cygan]

another step in the direction of education and integration of Bitcoin and ln

A decentralised system to process high volumes of instantaneous micropayments and provides a solution to the scalability problem as it can support millions of transactions per second.

https://www.santander.com/en/stories/lightning-network-blockchain

A type of financial asset, the technology underpinned by a technology with great potential, that increases security, traceability and transparency in data networks and systems.

https://www.santander.com/en/stories/what-is-bitcoin

[fillippone]

I don’t know how I missed it, but Jameson Lopp has a resource page about Lightning Network.

LIGHTNING NETWORK RESOURCES

The Lightning Network is being developed as a means of making bitcoin payments faster, cheaper, and more private. It's still experimental and reckless to use for large amounts of money. The goal of this page is to provide an index of curated high quality educational resources and information about the network to make it easier to educate yourself.

Adding to OP as well.

[Sandra_hakeem]

.

[Out of mind]

Unlocking Bitcoin’s Potential: Santander Report Reveals Lightning Network’s Game-Changing Scalability
In a groundbreaking report released by Santander, one of Spain’s premier financial institutions, the transformative power of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) is unveiled, offering a solution to the long-standing scalability issues associated with the world’s leading cryptocurrency. This report, accessible to both crypto enthusiasts and the wider public, examines how LN’s decentralized network enables faster and more cost-effective transactions, poised to revolutionize the financial landscape.
Traditionally, Bitcoin has faced criticism due to its limited capacity to handle a significant volume of transactions in a short period. Visa, for instance, can process over 20,000 transactions per second, while Bitcoin’s blockchain lags behind with a mere 5-7 transactions per second. However, Santander’s report sheds light on the Lightning Network’s transformative capabilities, proving that it holds the key to overcoming this limitation.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thecurrencyanalytics.com/bitcoin/unlocking-bitcoins-potential-santander-report-reveals-lightning-networks-game-changing-scalability-57755.php/amp

[fillippone]

I don’t know how I missed it, but Jameson Lopp has a resource page about Lightning Network.
LIGHTNING NETWORK RESOURCES

You can also add this resource to the list: Lightning Network Stores

That has been done.
Thank you!

[fillippone]

Listening to an Italian podcast, I was introduced to this Longform:

We Need More Apps with Lightning, not More Lightning Apps

This is a very well-written article with an innovative thesis: we need more applications built with LN inside and not a better LN application.

The parallel is with digital cameras. Those objects were pretty good until 2007, it was the integration of a digital camera in the iPhone that was a game changer and allowed for a complete reinvention of the product. Not as per se, as before, but as an integrated layer on a bigger, more complex, product.

And this is key to shifting the lever to increase the usage of LN: not the ideology, but the utility. Utility, the ability to use something for a reason, is by far a more effective way of convincing someone to use something or orange-pilling as we speak of Bitcoin technologies.

Utility is the key to scale. Connections are the key to utility. Developers are the key to connections.

[MusaMohamed]

We Need More Apps with Lightning, not More Lightning Apps

This is a very well-written article with an innovative thesis: we need more applications built with LN inside and not a better LN application.

Lightning Network applications are built and we actually need more platforms, more business, more other applications to integrate available Lightning Network applications.

Like some peer to peer trading platforms which were shut down latest months, Paxful, LocalBitcoins. They have widgets to help other platforms to easily deploy and collaborate with them, to gain more users to to their platforms and trade there. All start with a widget.

I agree with you that adoption should be started with readiness to accept Lightning Network, then interact with available apps. Building new Lightning Network applications is not necessary.

[cryptosize]

Listening to an Italian podcast, I was introduced to this Longform:

We Need More Apps with Lightning, not More Lightning Apps

This is a very well-written article with an innovative thesis: we need more applications built with LN inside and not a better LN application.

The parallel is with digital cameras. Those objects were pretty good until 2007, it was the integration of a digital camera in the iPhone that was a game changer and allowed for a complete reinvention of the product. Not as per se, as before, but as an integrated layer on a bigger, more complex, product.

And this is key to shifting the lever to increase the usage of LN: not the ideology, but the utility. Utility, the ability to use something for a reason, is by far a more effective way of convincing someone to use something or orange-pilling as we speak of Bitcoin technologies.

Utility is the key to scale. Connections are the key to utility. Developers are the key to connections.

I liked the digital camera/iPhone analogy.

Who could have imagined Instagram back in 1974?

I bet no one can imagine how Bitcoin/Lightning will look like in 50 years from now...

[cAPSLOCK]

Listening to an Italian podcast, I was introduced to this Longform:

We Need More Apps with Lightning, not More Lightning Apps

This is a very well-written article with an innovative thesis: we need more applications built with LN inside and not a better LN application.

The parallel is with digital cameras. Those objects were pretty good until 2007, it was the integration of a digital camera in the iPhone that was a game changer and allowed for a complete reinvention of the product. Not as per se, as before, but as an integrated layer on a bigger, more complex, product.

And this is key to shifting the lever to increase the usage of LN: not the ideology, but the utility. Utility, the ability to use something for a reason, is by far a more effective way of convincing someone to use something or orange-pilling as we speak of Bitcoin technologies.

Utility is the key to scale. Connections are the key to utility. Developers are the key to connections.

I liked the digital camera/iPhone analogy.

Who could have imagined Instagram back in 1974?

I bet no one can imagine how Bitcoin/Lightning will look like in 50 years from now...

Nostr is where this is happening currently.

First person to ping me on there who is "zappable" gets 1k sats.

npub1qktjyk0vdqlfss7wztawdnka5phx2p3vlvq50x0z402jk2fjhtnqlx9qas

[cygan]

the non-custodial service Pocket Bitcoin integrates the lightning network in your pay system.
Pocket allows you to buy Bitcoin once or recurringly from your bank account and receive your coins directly into any self-custody existing Bitcoin wallet of your choice.


https://pocketbitcoin.com/

[cAPSLOCK]

Just wanted to write something here today.

Lightning is really working so well!  

I got fed up with Twitter during Elons most recent... whatever that was... and decided to go back over to Nostr for my doomscolling addiction.  Early on I was very excited about Nostr (back in Dec 22) but it was nothing more than a Bitcoin "pleb" echo chamber.  And the interface and experience was fairly rough around the edges.

Well, that is no longer the case.  There is tons more content there now, and it is no longer just the monotonic  Bitcoin confirmation bias machine.  And the clients have been developed to a much greater degree now.

So two points apropos to this thread.

1.  Integrated lightning is working SO WELL.  If you have not seen it, what the protocol has done (along with the app devs) is integrate something along the likes of a "tweet like", but it is called a "zap".  In this case you can send the poster sats if you like their post.  Plain old likes are there too but when you really mean it...  for example:



Gigi has received a handful of regular likes, but another user has sent him 11 satoshis as a form of approval as well.  I need to dig into the numbers some and see if my theory holds up, but I believe Nostr has probably increased the traffic of LN micro-payments quite a bit.  And it just WORKS.  It is easy to set up, and easy to use.  Crazy easy.  You can send someone 1 sat.  Or 21, or 2100, or a million (as @jack was doing for a while).  You can easily set it up with a custodial wallet like WoS but you can also set it up using non-custodial wallets.  And it is NOT hard to set up or use.  It just uses LNURLs currently, but when we get to bolt12 it's gonna be even better.

2.  This synergy is what is going to make lightning really work.  This is the first real world proof of concept in production of a while new concept being enabled by lightning.  And it is catching on!  Yes we have been able to buy giftcards with lightning, and we can "stream sats" for podcasts, but those uses are still very niche.  THIS on the other hand is drawing in new users.  Political folk tired of the censorship tug of war on centralized social media platforms are starting to come to Nostr... and they are setting up lightning wallets and zapping each other.  New users to bitcoin.  Some who have never used the base layer at all.

This is honestly the first real virtuous circle use of the LN.  A real and thriving circular economy that is also a completedly new use case that never existed before.  And it is not only simple to use, keeping the bar for entry into this low enough for non techy folks, but it also will turn on a LOT of light bulbs for peoiple who have never thought much about what bitcoin is...

"You mean you can send me money... but there is no middle man, and once I have it it's mine, and I can do anything with it I want?  And no one can stop it?"

All of this happening RIGHT at the time where Elon and Mark are doing their stupid dick measuring contest over their closed, broken, sad attempts of becoming the wechat of the west?

[cygan]

the PhoenixWallet which allows you to store your Bitcoin on the lightning network itself, has implemented "splicing" in beta and other great features!

Splicing changes the game. Phoenix now manages a single dynamic channel, no more 1% fee on inbound liquidity, better predictability and control, trustless swaps.

https://acinq.co/blog/phoenix-splicing-update

[mendace]

the non-custodial service Pocket Bitcoin integrates the lightning network in your pay system.
Pocket allows you to buy Bitcoin once or recurringly from your bank account and receive your coins directly into any self-custody existing Bitcoin wallet of your choice.


https://pocketbitcoin.com/

This is finally good news, I always use Pocket to make a small accumulation plan but honestly onchain it takes a long time, often 1 or 2 days pass from when you made the transfer and if you need bitcoin immediately it is not the ideal service, but now with LN the waiting time should be drastically reduced and the fees will certainly be lower too.  Always at the top Pocket.

[Salahmu]

I have recently stumbled in a few tweets regarding the Lightning Network.

I am always been a LN fan, and I have a long history of reporting on various metrics, and I would like to start again.

First, an overview of the network so far:



The brown has been exponential, considering also that BTC has increased in value.

Looking at the LN capacity we see that much of the grow has been registered on the last few weeks. Growth has gone parabolic:



If we look at the following graph we have a detail on the balances added during the last months:



Of course, adding 250 BTC of capacity when BTC is at 30k is totally a different story than adding 300 BTC capacity when BTCUSD trades at 8,000 as in March 2019.

So, pretty a neat increase in capacity. Just wondering if the real usage of such capacity is gaining traction. I guess the “low” fees in the main chain are not pushing adoption, but it’s important to invest in this invisible assets.

I will try do add news, reports and commentaries about LN to this thread as soon as they are available or worth mentioning.
Glad if you help!



Resources on Lighting Network:

Bitcointalks Threads:

• The Lightning Network FAQ
• Basics of the Lightning Network
• Lightning Network -- Basics (documents, data pages, files, plots) by tranthidung

Dashboards:

• txstats.com
• BitcoinVisuals.com

External Resources:

• Jameson Lopp's LIGHTNING NETWORK RESOURCES
• Lightning Network Stores

Is actually a nice one specially there technological solution which is designed to solve glitches associated with Bitcoin by introducing off-chain transactions without the need for block confirmation on the blockchain. And they also make transactions faster. Lower transaction fees. Increased scalability. Greater flexibility.

[Makus]

Coinfinity, an Austrian bitcoin broker, has recently integrated the Lightning Network into its services, allowing customers to make bitcoin purchases with reduced transaction fees and quicker processing times.

Thomas Burgstaller, Chief Growth Officer at Coinfinity, highlighted the significance of this integration, stating, "Being this early to market is an important innovation step for us at Coinfinity, and Lightning itself is an essential foundation for the global adoption of Bitcoin as a usable monetary system."

The Lightning network, a Layer 2 scaling solution, addresses the limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain by facilitating faster and more cost-effective transactions for smaller bitcoin amounts. By leveraging the Lightning network, Coinfinity aims to enhance Bitcoin's usability as a competitive payment system, surpassing the transaction volumes of major card networks such as VISA or Mastercard.

Customers of Coinfinity can gradually access Lightning features through the company's web portal and mobile app for iOS and Android — currently, users can utilize Lightning to buy bitcoin, after which it will be integrated into the savings plan feature and then the selling function.

This integration not only offers convenience to users but also contributes to the wider adoption of Bitcoin as a viable means of payment. The move comes as Coinfinity seeks to optimize transaction efficiency and reduce costs associated with traditional bitcoin transactions.

Source:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/austrian-bitcoin-broker-coinfinity-integrates-lightning-network

[cygan]

the reason for the biggest drop in capacity to date (in this case around 590 BTC) is the closure of 2 major ln channels by River


https://twitter.com/Leishman/status/1678778742511136770

[franky1]

saw no decrease in success rates becasue they closed 2 channels that were being unused and just locking up value thats done nothing.. so ofcourse it wont affect success rates if the channels they closed were never used in first place

but atleast its now showing a better more honest display of liquidity. rather than shill capacity that was never used

[cygan]

after Bitfinex and Kraken, Binance is the next major exchange that has now successfully completed the integration of lightning network for deposits and withdrawals

https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/binance-completes-integration-of-bitcoin-btc-on-lightning-network-opens-deposits-and-withdrawals-eefbfae2c0ae472d9e1e36f1a30bf340
https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-integration-bitcoin-btc-lightning-network