CryptoGram_0022: January 26, 2018

DON'T PANIC: Bitcoin Lightning Network vs Ethereum Scaling Solutions #CryptoGram

Getting into it...

Lightning network has been getting a lot of publicity lately, and rightfully so. Personally, I hope to get a lightning node set up on main net this weekend. Overall, my goal is to be within the first 500 lightning network nodes... we will see, here is the current outlook, and its about 250 nodes.... my guess it will be past 500 after the weekend is over. Blockstream has set up a main net lightning store for stickers and junk more or less, but you get to test transactions which is pretty cool. A few different service providers are also beginning to test on the main net by accepting transactions. Overall, there seems to be a ton of progress being made in spite of nay sayers chiming in. In fact, people are trolling the nay-sayers by adding the hashtag #reckless to their posts about main net lightning activity. As a bonus, now you can search #reckless on twitter and you can find a lot about recent LN activity.

Lightning Network Status and Links

Here are some useful lightning links for those interested:
https://lnmainnet.gaben.win/
https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning-charge
https://blockstream.com/2018/01/16/lightning-charge.html
https://interfect.github.io/#!/posts/009-Ride-the-Lightning.md

Ethereum's version of lightning, as I understand it, is Raiden.

https://raiden.network/
The latest update to their network is in this blog post about a bug bounty for what is called "micro raiden."
https://medium.com/@raiden_network/microraiden-bug-bounty-update-695fddd6433

#OKAY
The bitcoin LN main net is growing by leaps and bounds every day. It is decentralized development at the edge of the network at its best.
Ethereum is suffering similar scaling issues to bitcoin in terms of tx times and fees, but they do not seem to have a viable scaling solution off the ground yet.

In other words, I think bitcoin is winning the scaling battle currently. I think this will result in the next rise of crypto being based on the implementation of lightning network.

Basically, once bitcoin is brought back to .50 cent fees by LN for most transactions, people will get excited about it again and you will have the same "need to enter the market now" fervor that seems to drive every price jump. This will of course be followed by a spreading of that money into alt coins, but bitcoin will retain much of it in my opinion, just like it has on every big price jump.

Just one opinion, open to comments or thoughts,

Thanks for reading,
-libertyhound

State of The Market:

For new readers:

Cryptogram is my personal journal of thoughts about cryptocurrencies and related topics.

Purpose of CryptoGram:

Currently in the crypto space it can be difficult to remember what you have discussed or been thinking from one week to the next. The rapid development of, and many changes in the space keep everyone on their toes. Now that I have been financially involved in the space for roughly a year, I realize that I would love to have my thoughts from 2017 written down somewhere. I believe having this information will help me stay focused, avoid repeating past mistakes, and hopefully help some other people, (anyone who decides to read this,) from making those same mistakes.

Briefly, I need a place to record my train of thought and that place will now be dubbed "CryptoGram"

My thoughts on the structure of this post are:

• About 500 words.
• Frequency of once a day to once a week.
• Each post will have a number and date.
• A snippet of top 5 cmc coins for price reference. (state of the market)
• I will always use these 5 tags, three of them will be:
  • bitcoin cryptocurrency ethereum
  • the other two will be topic specific