Is the Lightning Network Really the Future of Bitcoin Payments?

[sagorete]

Bitcoin is great for storing value, but when it comes to small payments, high fees and slow confirmation times can be a problem. That’s why the Lightning Network (LN) was created — to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper.

But adoption is still not as high as many hoped. For example:

Only a limited number of exchanges and wallets support Lightning.

Setting it up can still be confusing for new users.

Many people prefer using stablecoins or other crypto for quick transfers.


I think Lightning has a lot of promise, but maybe the ecosystem isn’t ready yet.

👉 What do you think? Have you used Lightning, and was it easy or difficult?

[LTU_btc]

I don't remember in what year Lightning Network become a thing. But from what I see, there isn't much progress in adoption. From all people here, I'm wondering how many of you are actually using LN. And by saying "actually using", I mean that you haven't just tried it for test purpposes.
From my perspective I can answer that I'm not using it, I just don't see many places where I can use. Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

[Satofan44]

I don't remember in what year Lightning Network become a thing. But from what I see, there isn't much progress in adoption. From all people here, I'm wondering how many of you are actually using LN. And by saying "actually using", I mean that you haven't just tried it for test purpposes.
From my perspective I can answer that I'm not using it, I just don't see many places where I can use.

1) This is very likely an AI post that you are responding to.
2) LN adoption is widespread. These days there are even Bitcoin ATMs that natively support LN. Just because you are not involved with this it does not mean that the adoption is not there. Compared to a few years ago, these days LN works pretty flawlessly.

Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

Absolutely not true.

[LTU_btc]

1) This is very likely an AI post that you are responding to.
2) LN adoption is widespread. These days there are even Bitcoin ATMs that natively support LN. Just because you are not involved with this it does not mean that the adoption is not there. Compared to a few years ago, these days LN works pretty flawlessly.

1) Yeah, it's likely. There is way too much of this shit here.
2) Maybe, I don't argue or pretend to be right. It's just my experience and I haven't faced much LN adoption. Like Bitcoin ATM with LN support - this is new thing for me. While there is no Bitcoin ATM in whole my country, I don't even talk about LN support.

Absolutely not true.

If I was wrong, I'm just glad to hear it

[Satofan44]

1) This is very likely an AI post that you are responding to.
2) LN adoption is widespread. These days there are even Bitcoin ATMs that natively support LN. Just because you are not involved with this it does not mean that the adoption is not there. Compared to a few years ago, these days LN works pretty flawlessly.

1) Yeah, it's likely. There is way too much of this shit here.
2) Maybe, I don't argue or pretend to be right. It's just my experience and I haven't faced much LN adoption. Like Bitcoin ATM with LN support - this is new thing for me. While there is no Bitcoin ATM in whole my country, I don't even talk about LN support.

Absolutely not true.

If I was wrong, I'm just glad to hear it

Well you did say "from what you see" but that can also be indicative of a general view of the LN situation and not a local view. Actually this is probably the more common understanding of those words. You would have to be a bit more precise if you want to refer it to your area. If you don't have any BTC ATMs at all where you live then the likelihood of LN accepting businesses is extremely low. There are definitely places in the world where adoption is very high but you won't hear about it that often in global news because they are small cities or communities comparatively speaking.

It is a supply and demand thing. Usually supply appears after demand is clear unless there are pioneers who provide a supply very early. If you want LN to be adopted where you live, you or other Bitcoiners around you must make it happen. That is pretty much how it happened in any place that I am aware of. People got together and started red pilling business owners and helping them set up LN. These days accepting LN if you accept Bitcoin anyway is very trivial. There may be some difficulties on the accounting side depending on local laws, but those difficulties are equally applicable to on-chain and LN Bitcoin.

[NeuroticFish]

Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

Absolutely not true.

I think that this perception depends greatly on the region.
While I expect that in most Western countries and especially in US the number of LN services grow significantly, I have 100$ in my LN wallet and I was unable to spend a dime of that during this year's holiday (both inside my country and abroad, but not in capital cities).
So yeah, if it covers "the others" but not yourself, it kinda sux...

[d5000]

In reality there were a lot of good news about LN in the last few years. Several large exchanges now support it, also several small swap services. So it's not longer a problem to swap LN coins to on-chain BTC or fiat, if it ever was.

The security against the Replacement Cycle Attack, which was seen as a potential big problem when it was discovered in 2023, seem to have improved with recent updates too.

However node and channel statistics are still a bit disappointing as they basically stagnate, even if in the last month there seems to have been a slight increase (around 2%) which may hint that the tendency is changing. On the other hand, the value of the coins locked in LN channels has hit several ATHs in 2025 (now it's a bit below the ATHs, but that's because Bitcoin price has decreased a little bit).

Currently onchain transaction fees are however very low, and also the "currency" use is stagnating as still speculative/store-of-value use prevails. These two factors are imo holding LN back right now.

[Satofan44]

I think that this perception depends greatly on the region.
While I expect that in most Western countries and especially in US the number of LN services grow significantly, I have 100$ in my LN wallet and I was unable to spend a dime of that during this year's holiday (both inside my country and abroad, but not in capital cities).

Sure, I don't mean to reject that statement. I merely ask posters to be more precise. You can't make general statements regarding the global state of something based off of your local experiences. In most cases you will have to look for LN accepting places in advance and actively go to them. It is not likely that you will find them by chance wherever you decided to go. The people who live in a LN accepting environment are the lucky ones.

So yeah, if it covers "the others" but not yourself, it kinda sux...

As I said, if you want to see the adoption you need to help it happen. In any case you can use LN for online things whenever you have so you get to at least have a taste of the experience.

However node and channel statistics are still a bit disappointing as they basically stagnate, even if in the last month there seems to have been a slight increase (around 2%) which may hint that the tendency is changing. On the other hand, the value of the coins locked in LN channels has hit several ATHs in 2025 (now it's a bit below the ATHs, but that's because Bitcoin price has decreased a little bit).

Currently onchain transaction fees are however very low, and also the "currency" use is stagnating as still speculative/store-of-value use prevails. These two factors are imo holding LN back right now.

It is, but perhaps this is not primarily a problem that comes from LN itself but rather from the overall lowered rate of participation in the market by retail. I see that that current sentiment is very low. On chain activity everywhere is extremely low. For shitcoin chains to get the real picture you have to subtract most or all automated systems such as on-chain bots. Once you do that you will see just how bad retail participation is right now.  Nevertheless, the difficulty in setting up a node and LN in general plays a role. To be honest, I think it is perfectly fine to tell people to simply use mobile wallets that manage this for you. Since for LN we are talking about small amounts of Bitcoin it should not be an issue.

We should not let perfection cause friction for adoption in this case. LN nodes are not as important as on chain nodes. 

[Cryptohygenic]

👉 What do you think? Have you used Lightning, and was it easy or difficult?

If I must be frank, then I will say you talk too weird, almost as scary as how crypto users will be forced to use a particular network and I hope it is never the best option neither is it as a core in the blockchain.
I don't use the lighting network but yet transactions seem to be very efficient in my side using other network providers. A lot has also not cared about the transactions because they are hodling. Although regular traders who are sending smaller amounts of might suffer it.

[TastyChillySauce00]

I don't remember in what year Lightning Network become a thing. But from what I see, there isn't much progress in adoption. From all people here, I'm wondering how many of you are actually using LN. And by saying "actually using", I mean that you haven't just tried it for test purpposes.
From my perspective I can answer that I'm not using it, I just don't see many places where I can use.

1) This is very likely an AI post that you are responding to.
2) LN adoption is widespread. These days there are even Bitcoin ATMs that natively support LN. Just because you are not involved with this it does not mean that the adoption is not there. Compared to a few years ago, these days LN works pretty flawlessly.

Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

Absolutely not true.

There are many lightning transaction indeed, it's just they never show because the transaction happens offchain. It gives the illusion as if lightning network adoption isn't surfacing but these people are mistaken.

Even many CEX accept sending bitcoin through lightning network these days, something that most of people never truly understand that it's a hint for the existing demands.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

I don't remember in what year Lightning Network become a thing.

You don't need to remember it, just search and find what you need.

Visit the Bitcoin Lightning Network Dashboard and get some charts for basic information on Bitcoin Lightning Network growth with time.
Lightning Network Nodes: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/ln-nodes
Lightning Network Channels: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/ln-channels

From stats on nodes and channels, the Bitcoin Lightning Network adoption began to be bigger considerably since 2019.

But from what I see, there isn't much progress in adoption. From all people here, I'm wondering how many of you are actually using LN. And by saying "actually using", I mean that you haven't just tried it for test purpposes.
From my perspective I can answer that I'm not using it, I just don't see many places where I can use. Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

Last year, there were concerns on security of Bitcoin Lightning Network and the adoption on it declined a lot since then as you can see on two above charts as well.

There are developments of Bitcoin side-chains that can be future solutions for Bitcoin users if they don't like Bitcoin on-chain and Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Sidechain Observer - Bitcoin L2 Projects & current state of development

[BitGoba]

Number of services that support LN isn't growing significantly.

Absolutely not true.

I think that this perception depends greatly on the region.
While I expect that in most Western countries and especially in US the number of LN services grow significantly, I have 100$ in my LN wallet and I was unable to spend a dime of that during this year's holiday (both inside my country and abroad, but not in capital cities).
So yeah, if it covers "the others" but not yourself, it kinda sux...

Check out the BTCMap website https://btcmap.org/  you might find merchants in your area that accept Bitcoin Lightning. BTCMap tracks all kinds of businesses worldwide, including stores, restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, hotels, motels, and more other business, that accept Bitcoin.

If you also run a business that accepts Bitcoin, you can add it to the map for free. By adding your business to BTCMap, you have the opportunity to attract new customers and get free publicity.

[underwood77]

I use the Lightning Network almost daily, not for physical stores but online. I use Bitrefill to pay with Lightning for gas vouchers, Amazon vouchers, and supermarket vouchers. I keep around 150,000 sats per month on Zeus, connected to my own node, to pay with LN. Physical stores in my area are still very few, and although some do exist, I’ve never tried them yet

[NeuroticFish]

Check out the BTCMap website https://btcmap.org/  you might find merchants in your area that accept Bitcoin Lightning. BTCMap tracks all kinds of businesses worldwide, including stores, restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, hotels, motels, and more other business, that accept Bitcoin.

If you also run a business that accepts Bitcoin, you can add it to the map for free. By adding your business to BTCMap, you have the opportunity to attract new customers and get free publicity.

Yeah, in my vicinity, as I've already knew, there are pretty much only Bitcoin ATMs.
Not that useful, I already have bitcoin card if I want to exchange and actually spend fiat.

[₿itcoin]

What do you think? Have you used Lightning, and was it easy or difficult?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqREM62cAqk

you are right while it provides fast & cheap transaction, its growth has been slower than expected. Whatever, for your kind information, in early 2025 public Lightning capacity surpassed 5000 BTC! ! reflecting around 384 % increase since 2020! You really don't see any significant development in this, huh?

Adoption is not widespread because many things like liquidity challenges, user experience issues &  regulatory concerns often stand in the way. If you look at countries like El Salvador, they have already prevail over these hitch, they can conduct daily transactions through LN without any govt butting in. I have also heard of some region like Kibera slums in Nairobi, where LN is helping to upgrade economic inclusion, stream the above video.

so despite the challenges LN is evolving day by day & dont think that just because you & I dont use it, so its stalled. For your question, yeah i already used LN in Binance app &  if I find any shop that accepts payment through LN, I will definitely try that too.

[dkbit98]

Bitcoin is great for storing value, but when it comes to small payments, high fees and slow confirmation times can be a problem. That’s why the Lightning Network (LN) was created — to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper.

There are no high fees on bitcoin blockchain for a long time, you can even send transactions with 1 sat/vB most of the times, or even less.
It's normal to wait some time for confirmation and we don't to change that in any way.

What do you think? Have you used Lightning, and was it easy or difficult?

I don't liuke lightning network at all, it is not decentralized like people say, it's based mostly on cloud servers and it's not easy for newbies.
If some wallets are easy for newbies than they are custodial, and many times fees on lightning can be higher than on mainnet.

[LTU_btc]

I don't remember in what year Lightning Network become a thing.

You don't need to remember it, just search and find what you need.

Visit the Bitcoin Lightning Network Dashboard and get some charts for basic information on Bitcoin Lightning Network growth with time.
Lightning Network Nodes: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/ln-nodes
Lightning Network Channels: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/ln-channels

From stats on nodes and channels, the Bitcoin Lightning Network adoption began to be bigger considerably since 2019.

-snip-
Last year, there were concerns on security of Bitcoin Lightning Network and the adoption on it declined a lot since then as you can see on two above charts as well.

There are developments of Bitcoin side-chains that can be future solutions for Bitcoin users if they don't like Bitcoin on-chain and Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Sidechain Observer - Bitcoin L2 Projects & current state of development

Thanks for sharing these links, I've looked into it. Charts of nodes and channels looks more or less stable recently. It's neither falling or growing, but it's way behind it's peak.

Check out the BTCMap website https://btcmap.org/  you might find merchants in your area that accept Bitcoin Lightning. BTCMap tracks all kinds of businesses worldwide, including stores, restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, hotels, motels, and more other business, that accept Bitcoin.

If you also run a business that accepts Bitcoin, you can add it to the map for free. By adding your business to BTCMap, you have the opportunity to attract new customers and get free publicity.

Well, this map proves what I was thinking - LN adoption in my region is very low. There is maybe 10 services in whole country. Services that I hear for the first time and nothing in city. While in some regions LN adoption is really significant.

[Johnlomape]

Bitcoin is great for storing value, but when it comes to small payments, high fees and slow confirmation times can be a problem. That’s why the Lightning Network (LN) was created — to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper.

There are no high fees on bitcoin blockchain for a long time, you can even send transactions with 1 sat/vB most of the times, or even less.
It's normal to wait some time for confirmation and we don't to change that in any way.

What do you think? Have you used Lightning, and was it easy or difficult?

I don't liuke lightning network at all, it is not decentralized like people say, it's based mostly on cloud servers and it's not easy for newbies.
If some wallets are easy for newbies than they are custodial, and many times fees on lightning can be higher than on mainnet.

The LN is mostly seen as a good alternative during when the Bitcoin fee is high. But currently, the Bitcoin network is not over flooded with transactions that could make everything go high again. For the privacy aspect, I think since LN is off chain the privacy level is preferably and faster than on chain transactions. Once the transaction is recorded on the blockchain, it send a signal to watchers and bots that are always actively checking through transactions and wallets to know where funds is coming from and where it's going. Although LN has it own lapses just like on chain transactions but I still prefer it as a good alternative.

[Antotena]

The LN is mostly seen as a good alternative during when the Bitcoin fee is high. But currently, the Bitcoin network is not over flooded with transactions that could make everything go high again. For the privacy aspect, I think since LN is off chain the privacy level is preferably and faster than on chain transactions. Once the transaction is recorded on the blockchain, it send a signal to watchers and bots that are always actively checking through transactions and wallets to know where funds is coming from and where it's going. Although LN has it own lapses just like on chain transactions but I still prefer it as a good alternative.

Some people use lightning transaction not because the fee is high, right now the transaction fee is low, we have some mempool that do accept transaction with less than a sat per vbytes, like you can pay less than a cent for a transaction and it will go through but the people that are using lightning hasn't stop for one day to close their channels. I think it's more convenient for them to pay some tiny sats through channel instead of sending transaction through the main layer.

We need to have people that think Bitcoin lightning is for daily use and not when the transaction fee on the main layer is high, it's going to become a normal use for people instead of having to rely on it when Bitcoin transaction fee is higher. Imagine if you have all your channels connected to all the place you spend money daily, where you eat, where you shop, where you get an hair cut and where you get services, lightning is going to be bigger than the way it's right now.

[franky1]

lightning network has flaws and bugs, even lightning dev's admit to it..
what would be needed is a new 'start from scratch' subnetwork for micro-transactions.

many people over the last 8 years have tried LN and found its headaches, bottlenecks, bugs and issues.. and LN devs cant/wont fix them for many reasons
so if people want mass adoption of a subnetwork for micro transactions a new one needs to be designed and made well, instead of the games currently played with empty promises that "LN is the future".. sorry its not