What is the Lightning Network?


Lightning Network, This development is going to change the way we use money on the internet. Have you ever had that moment you were paying a bill online and it just wouldn’t go through? This is because of credit card companies adding “Vendor Charges” on transactions as a way to get more money out of their customers.

 

Lightning Network will change all that by making transactions truly immediate. Most people haven't even heard about it but it's pretty big news. The Lightning Network is a payment protocol that has been developed to increase the speed of Bitcoin transactions. It also allows for many functionalities which have never been possible with conventional cryptocurrencies.


The lightning network is an offchain instant payment protocol built on the Bitcoin mainnet. It allows for lightning-fast transactions and instant payments that can be made between two network users anywhere in the world. The lightning network doesn't require trust outside of the underlying bitcoin blockchain.


Understanding of Lightning Network


Thaddeus Dryja and Joseph Poon first proposed the Lightning Network in 2016, and it has been in development ever since.The poor transaction speed and throughput of Bitcoin was the issue that the Lightning Network was designed to address.


The Lightning Network aims to speed up and reduce the cost of bitcoin transactions. It belongs to a more recent category of crypto technologies called " Layer 2 " blockchains, which are comparable to HOV lanes on motorways. 


The primary Bitcoin blockchain (also known as " Layer 1 ") can move more quickly by dumping some transaction " Traffic " to the " Layer 2 " blockchain of the Lightning Network.


Blockchain payments that are incredibly quick without concern for block confirmation periods. Blockchain smart contracts ensure security without generating individual on-blockchain transactions for payments. measured in milliseconds or seconds, depending on the payment.


What Problems Does It Try to Solve?


Bitcoin was not intended to support the volume of transactions that take place every day now. The following are some of the problems that the Lightning Network aims to fix:

Due to a surge in transaction volume and increasing mining difficulty, it has become more costly and time-consuming. Because of the rise in transaction volume, transaction confirmation needs to be improved.


The huge amount of energy required to compute this data makes maintaining the Bitcoin network unaffordable.


The foundation of the Lightning Network is made up of multi-signature contracts and smart contracts, which guarantee that money transmitted through the channels reaches its intended receivers.


The Lightning Network enables many transactions to be carried out without having to wait for the slower main net to confirm individual exchanges by using channels between participants. Parties may transfer funds among themselves as necessary between the opening and closing of a channel up until the closing of the channel.


The transactions are relayed to the main net for confirmation after the channel has been closed.


What is the mechanism of the Lightning Network?


Let's say you wish to pay using bitcoin to purchase coffee from your neighbourhood coffee shop. Although the transaction you must make is not substantial, it is likely that it will take hours to process because of Bitcoin's low TPS. You'll also be required to pay a network fee, which will probably cost more than your coffee.


You can establish a channel with any other party, in this case, a coffee establishment, using the Lightning Network. Any purchase you make through the channel results in a transaction being recorded. And because this doesn't happen on the Bitcoin blockchain, it happens instantly and might even be free! 


You have the option to either add additional Bitcoin or close the channel after the Bitcoin you have deposited on it has been utilised completely. All of these transactions are collected together and posted to the Bitcoin blockchain after the channel is terminated.


Between two parties, the Lightning Network establishes a smart contract. The agreement's provisions are included in the contract at the time of creation and cannot be altered. The contract automatically concludes without the involvement of a third party when its requirements are met, for as when a customer pays for a coffee. 


The Lightning Network anonymizes a transaction after a payment channel has verified it. No one can distinguish between the individual transactions that make up a value transfer because they are all available at once.


Conclusion


The blockchain infrastructure and technology are here to stay. It's a wonderful innovation with practically unlimited use cases, despite its youth. A start toward resolving the scalability problems impeding the adoption of Bitcoin is the Lightning Network. Nonetheless, as the number of users on the Bitcoin network grows, a scaling solution will eventually become necessary.


Individual users have an intriguing potential to participate in the blockchain ecosystem using Lightning Nodes. It's a good way to learn more about the ecosystem, get involved, and make some Bitcoin in the process.


The Lightning Network (LN) is an idea for a Peer-to-Peer micropayment system that is built upon the blockchain technology of Bitcoin. This network will be used as a layer between anonymous transactions and transactions broadcasted on the blockchain.


With this system merchants can send payments instantly without worrying about carrying large amounts of bitcoin while paying less in transaction fees. The LN is predicted to be able to handle billions of transactions per second and have the potential to change how we think about payments today.


This article is an easy to understand introduction to the bitcoin Lightning Network. For some context, the easiest thing to remember is that the lightning network is basically a layer on top of bitcoin which will allow for near instant, free transactions to happen.


The lightning network is still new and being tested. However, it has already shown the potential to solve scalability issues that will hinder the Bitcoin network in the future. With this technology, the Bitcoin network can continue to grow and serve as the premier cryptocurrency for years to come.