What is Lightning Network?

1 min. readlast update: 10.18.2023

The Lightning Network is a "layer 2" payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin. It is intended to enable fast transactions among participating nodes and has been proposed as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem.

Lightning Network is transactions for the Future

Instant Payments. Lightning-fast blockchain payments without worrying about block confirmation times. Security is enforced by blockchain smart-contracts without creating an on-blockchain transaction for individual payments. Payment speed is measured in milliseconds to seconds.

Scalability. Capable of millions to billions of transactions per second across the network. Capacity blows away legacy payment rails by many orders of magnitude. Attaching payment per action/click is now possible without custodians.

Low Cost. By transacting and settling off-blockchain, the Lightning Network allows for exceptionally low fees, which allows for emerging use cases such as instant micropayments.

Cross Blockchains. Cross-chain atomic swaps can occur off-chain instantly with heterogeneous blockchain consensus rules. So long as the chains can support the same cryptographic hash function, it is possible to make transactions across blockchains without trust in 3rd party custodians.

Optimize your finances with the Lightning network!

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