A lot of people have high expectations for the Lightning Network. it is a major scaling solution which should improve Bitcoin overall. Although LN is still in beta, the number of network nodes is still rising. Although there is still a lot of progress to be made, the situation is slowly improving.
The Lightning Network is a major development for the Bitcoin ecosystem. With lower fees and direct payment channels, LN offers a lot of benefits. That can only happen if enough people use it. Additionally, the network nodes need to have sufficient throughput to make good things happen. As of right now, the network can process $70,000 worth of Bitcoin in transactions.
The Lightning Network has to Deliver on its Promise
Although this is a marginal amount, it is an improvement compared to a few weeks ago. This is a positive development for Bitcoin as a whole. With a fair few service providers looking into the Lightning Network, a rapid pace of development and growth is direly needed. Until now, Bitcoin has disappointed when it comes to scaling and improving overall use of this cryptocurrency.
It will be interesting to see how things evolve in this regard. The expectations for the Lightning Network are quite high. If this solution fails to deliver, Bitcoin will face a lot of serious issues. Additionally, other currencies are emerging which can effectively rival BTC one day. Whether or not they will actually do so, is a different matter altogether.
One interesting aspect about all of this is how the Lightning Network has over 1,500 nodes. The big question is how centralized these nodes are. More specifically, Bitcoin’s node centralization problem has been documented extensively over the past few years. The Lightning Network still has a long way to go until it becomes a mainstream tool. So far, things are falling into place quite nicely.
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