How does it sound to you more than 4000 nodes and $1.2 million capacity of Bitcoin? Familiar maybe a bit overacting? Not at all. This is Lightning Network’s latest record as one of the most fast and stable growing networks in the crypto sphere.
Enhancing BTC’s scalability
- Capacity (BTC): 223.63 BTCs
- Capacity (USD): more than $1.2 million
- Nodes: 4000+
- Average node age: 138 days
- Payment channels: 12 500+
- Capacity per channel: $663 / 0.114 BTCs
Established in less than one year, the Lightning network achieves an enormous success on the crypto market. AS you might see from the statistics it’s welcoming new nodes during the last six months all the time, that the average node age has significantly decreased. Built for the purpose of solving the scalability problem of BTC, it’s been monitored with great expectation from the crypto community. The idea behind was to transmit big transactions without high fees. A lot of applications have been developed using the same model from the beginning of the year so far. Developers have also discovered the opportunity to implement the Lightning network’s method in smart contracts.
How does it work?
Bitcoin users are able to broadcast transactions into an off-chain network using various payment channels, which aren’t connected to the blockchain itself. So, they can send near and instant transactions, without experiencing enormous fees for the matter. After users were able to test the idea of the Lightning Network during the alpha mode, now the full-beta edition is supported by a user-friendly wallet to make is more accessible even for beginners.
Lightning Network Upgrades
According the latest announcement from last week, the labs developer revealed some more changes coming to the network. Some of the features to get implement are dual-funded channels, anonymous destinations and multi-path payments.
Lightning Network features
Now the Lightning Network is experiencing multiple usages in different Lightning applications (Lapps) which find their daily appliance in several blockchain companies, implementing it for various purposes. We observe application of Lapps in multiple programming languages such as C, Java and Scala and also several publishers like WordPress. There are opportunities to convert balances by payment channel by using a Lightning conductor application. It’s been implemented also in online markets selling products on the Internet and even in communication platforms. The mechanism is able to track nodes and other elements of the ecosystem by providing numerous data. In a word, you can find this method eve in ice creams and coffee as an exchange for Lightning Network micro-payments – even not fully available, we consider is more than amazing to spread such a wide usage all over the market.