Lightning Network and the future of Bitcoin

in #vincentb7 years ago

lightning.jpg

For many people coming into cryptocurrencies in the last few months, it was probably bitcoin's huge growth in 2017 what attracted them in the first place.

However in the last month and a half, we've seen a big pullback (I know, bitcoin has seen bigger and longer price "crashes") fed by rumours of new regulation in South Korea and a posible banning of mining activities in China. But above that, I think that the biggest reason behind this sluggish streak has to do with delayed transactions and growing fees.

This has given fuel to critics of bitcoin about it's scalability limitations and some people are even putting some doubts over the fact that bitcoin is no longer the cryptocurrency envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto in his original whitepaper.

After all of this, you might think that bitcoin has already peaked and that sooner or later it will concede it's dominance to some other cryptocurrency. But actually, some groups of developers had been working for the last couple of years in a solution.

That solution is called Lightning Network. A network of off-chain payment channels in which it would be posible to make instant transaction with lower fees.

But of course this intended solution has found it's own group of critics, citing that in some cases it would be pretty difficult if not imposible for some transactions to find a route to be completed inside the network or that to trying to solve this isue could lead to centralisation of the whole system.

I'm personally confindent that LN will be an effective solution to solve the biggest issues of scaling bitcoin as a payment form and that once it is fully implemented, it will propel it's use and it's price accordingly.

Please share your thoughts

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I hope that the Bitcoin devs do stop their constant infighting and do come up with a solution to Bitcoin's high transaction fees and slow transaction times woes before it becomes completely obsolete.

Completely agree, banks are currently outperforming bitcoin in that sense :(

I agree with you. It is very expensive to do a bitcoin transaction. Hopefully Bitcoin cash and Ripple will able to help reduce the cost. More companies will start taking other cryptocurrencies.

Maybe bitcoin won't be needing lighting network anytime soon? The latests news –

Is Bitcoin is going to crash by 80% more?

Bitcoin may go down all the way to $5000 to find support, but once the LN and other security features are implemented, there is potential for it to recover rapidly.

Well now there's something I can get behind, because now the last thing we need is for Bitcoin the flat-out crash. (the complete and utter nightmare/disaster that would be)!! : O

I heard a rumor that Litecoin will implement LN before Bitcoin. I wonder what the impact will be on Bitcoin if that happens.

I also agree with you transaction fees should come doun to bring more transaction

You got a 10.70% upvote from @mercurybot courtesy of @johanalejo!

If a transaction can't find a lightening route, then it can always go back through the block chain.

Not sure what the issue is.

That's my best guess too. Just wanted to include some other perspective

I just love the sound of it. "lightning network" It sounds so futuristic.

LN fully implemented = MOON + JUPITER + VENUS + PLUTO + ALFA CENTAURY

I have tried to transfer bitcoin earlier this morning and I was shocked with the result. The transaction fee is much lower and the speed is a little bit faster. I don't if this is the effect of LN or just because of the low volume. Anyways, you can check it here https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@vhmcrypto/bitcoin-transaction-fee-and-speed-january-30-2018 and comment your thoughts! Have a good day!

As stated in my last post, the LN is only running in the Testnet, the developers recommended to avoid using the Mainnet for LN, which net were you using?

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@santana33/market-view-29-01-btc-lightning-update-and-tether-scandal-bandwidth-glitch-did-not-allow-me-to-post-yesterday

You got a 6.96% upvote from @minnowvotes courtesy of @santana33!

I've checked that and there's definitely an improvement. But the perception is more important than reality in terms of markets behaviour. Maybe if this trend keeps up for a few weeks we'll see how it reflects in bitcoin prices

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm new to bitcoin so will follow you and appreciate your posts

Hi @johanalejo saw your post on the Vincentb Tag and gave it a like!

I hope the lightning network will reduce network congestion. However, the whole "Off-Chain" thing might put some people off.

I just posted so if you wanted to like mine as well I would appreciate that. Anyways have a wonderful day

Am also very confident about the LN and and btc. I know with time all this FUD surrounding bitcoin would die down. check out $ltc too you'd be glad you did if your not already hodling some

oh i believe in LTC and ETH. Bitcoin is being manipulated more than we know.