The Bitcoin Side chain called the Lightning Network
This little known sidechain, will be essential for Bitcoin Success in El Salvador. Once I read of Bitcoin becoming Legal Tender in El Salvador, I started thinking of how the Lightening Network will help this bold move be successful.
Bitcoin and transaction speed and transaction costs could cause the plan to fail.
Bitcoin is like Ethereum in that has Bitcoin issues with low transaction per second speed and high transaction costs that are a limiting factor in it’s adoption for commercial activities. However Bitcoin has a functioning side chain called Lightening Network, and this side chain has the capability to make Bitcoin work as a currency in a country with both urban and rural areas.
Lightening Network solves this issue and provides additional features which will help immensely.
The Lightening network is a sidechain, and all you need to know is:
First, it uses Bitcoin.
Yes it uses Bitcoin, so wrapping or com-locations of using alternative tokens.
Second, microtransactions.
Lightening is capable of microtransactions, or small transactions like 100 satoshi.
Third, micro fees.
Lightening is capable of microtransaction fees, which make micro transactions economically viable.
Fourth, Lightening is very.
Speed is very important, and Lightening is by its creators description very, very fast. By comparison; Bitcoin is 20 transactions per second, Ethereum is 40 per second, while by comparison the speed of the Lightening Network is one million transactions per second.
Fifth, Lightening works without Internet.
Remarkably, Lightening co-creator Blocknet built this capability, not just as a theoretic feature, they built the hardware and it is functional. The Lightening Network uses Satelites and Cell phones to perform both transactions and record them on the blockchains.
Details:
#Satelite
Blocknet, the organization which was a major contributor to lightening has created an deployed lightning blockchain servers which update the Lightning Blockchain, and therefore the Bitcoin blockchain via satellite link.
Blocknet has rented space on two different satellites which travel in opposite orbits, one longitudinally and the other latitudinally, to cover the earth, El Salvadors equatorial position is especially helpful to facilitate satellite coverage.
#Cellphone
SMT text or cellphone text message systems, which also don’t rely on the internet, but instead rely on SMT text messaging and telephone company internet connections updating the ledger, already exist and are deployed in South and central America where El Salvador is located.
Sixth, Lightening Network has 4 wallets.
Yes, there are already at least four wallets, which have n=been tested in the gaming population who currently use the Lightening Network to facilitate in game Bitcoin payments for video games and video game NFTs. As an added feature, Lightening Wallets are capable of storing NFTs.
Summary
So now you know some amazing things about Bitcoins sidechain, the Lightening Network. A truly amazing construct, which excites me because of its great potential.
What do you think?
Agree or disagree?
Let me know below!
@shortsegments
Hi @shortsegments
I've been hearing about Lightening Network for a while now, I didn't know these features you mention.
I am amazed at the amount of transactions it can perform per second, and that it can even run without internet is colossal.
This step taken by El Salvador regarding Bitcoin will serve as a test pilot, I am sure that many countries will be watching to see how everything develops in that country with the legal use of BTC.
I hope it will be a total success, because all of us who are already here would benefit a lot.
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Thank you for your comment. I have been studying the Lightening Network and I was surprised at how little publicity it receives. The technology that Blockstream provides is solid technology with a track record. I think that the potential for this to turn things around in Central America is amazing.
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There is a lot of issues in the article...
For starters, satellite connections are very slow, the round-trip can be even 3 minutes, which means satellite connections can't be used when speed is an important factor.
Text messages can be theoretically used for transmitting transactions, but the maximum length of text messages mean that the data is limited to about 160 bytes. In theory more modern extensions could be used, but that means both the phone and the network must both support the same extension.
There is also a lot of missing words in the sentences and headers.
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Thank you for your comment.
Regarding Satelites: if you are in a rural area, a days walk from the nearest town, do you really think waiting 3 minutes for a satelite transmission is an issue?
Please consider the context of these developments.
SMT texting of Bitcoin is already a reality in South and Central America. The software compatibility is completed. The user only texts a simple text message of less the 20 characters.
Please consider that these technologies are not perfect, but functional.
If you Google this topic you will find this technology is in use in countries with minimal government approval. How much easier will it be for cellphone providers to provide this service with government approval and promotion.
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I walk about 4 hours to my parents house and that's nowhere near any shops... So I know what it's like to walk long distances. There is no bus routes or even proper roads to where my parents live, so walking is the only option.
I, myself, live in a small town, but trip to nearest shop takes an hour by walking, and they don't sell everything, so to get for example, clothes, I need to walk to next town. I could take a bus, but it would take longer for bus to travel the roads as roads or bus routes are not straight at all and bus has to stop to pick more passengers. It's also very common for buses here to rollover or literally eject passengers due to bad roads. Only few buses here have seatbelts.
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Wow. You really could benefit from avoiding buses as much as possible.
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There is no traffic police in my country anymore, so buses and other vehicles drive as fast as possible... Also, most bus routes are once in every 30 minutes or once in an hour except on public holidays when some routes are driven only during morning and noon.
During school days around the start and end of school day, some bus routes are every 15 minutes, but those are almost always full.
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That’s nice. I am glad you have good public transportation.
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Sure, without doubt lighting bitcoin sidechain is much more scalable and more flexible, transaction fee is a major factor of concern in bitcoin blockchain it functionality will help boost bitcoin adoption.
Thanks for sharing.
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Your welcome, thank you for commenting.
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