Bitcoin’s main network implementation of the Lightning Network has recently reached a new all-time capacity high, passing 4,000 nodes for the very first time.
333 BTC Capacity
The so-called “second layer” payment protocol which operates on top of the existing Bitcoin network, the Lighting Network (LN), has recently surged in capacity of more than 333 BTC, according to data from monitoring resource 1ML. This marks a 200 percent surge in less than in a month.
At the same time, the number of nodes has increased with upwards of 8 percent, surpassing 4,000 for the first very first time.
The main purpose of the LN is to ensure transactions and payment settling off-chain, hence offloading the main network and helping it scale.
In the meantime, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a serious drop in its price during the last week. The market’s forerunner is currently trading at about $5,477.77, marking a 2.30 percent decrease over the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is down more than 13 percent in the last week, which is the lowest it has been trading since last October. It has also fallen to a market cap below $100 billion.
LN Catching Up to Speed
The Lightning Network, however, has been catching up to speed, as is evident from its performance. Last month, Live Bitcoin News reported that Chile’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Buda, has integrated support for LN.
In September, CoinGate brought LN-enabled payments to its network of over 4,000 merchants globally.
Additionally, Litecoin’s Charlie Lee noted earlier in October that “Bitcoin with Lightning Network more closely fits the Bitcoin whitepaper’s title: ‘A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.’ This is Satoshi’s Vision.”
6/6 Bitcoin with Lightning Network more closely fits the Bitcoin whitepaper's title: "A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." This is Satoshi's Vision.
— Charlie Lee Ⓜ️🕸️ (@SatoshiLite) October 6, 2018
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Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Twitter/@SatoshiLite.