What is the Lightning Network?
Lightning is a peer to peer Bitcoin transmission network.
Imagine this situation:
This all happens in seconds, and does not rely on trust between any of the parties involved.
The Lightning Network is designed in a way that if Charley don't give the Bitcoin to Denise, he will not receive the Bitcoin from Betty, and so on backward through the payment route.
Imagine this situation:
- You know Abe and Betty.
- Betty knows Charley.
- Charley knows Denise.
- Abe isn't connected to Denise, but wants to buy something from her.
This all happens in seconds, and does not rely on trust between any of the parties involved.
The Lightning Network is designed in a way that if Charley don't give the Bitcoin to Denise, he will not receive the Bitcoin from Betty, and so on backward through the payment route.
- Andreas Antonopoulos has a good video on Lightning if you're interested in more detail.
- He also has a nice technical discussion about Lightning if you want to dig deeper.
How does Lightning work?
One node operator, just like you, opens a channel with another node. Channels are a fixed amount of Bitcoin which you can send back and forth like trading IOUs with friends.
Your new channel (Channel A) starts out with all the Bitcoin on your side, but eventually someone else who has a channel to you (Channel B) with Bitcoin on their side wants to send money to that other person. So your node will receive Bitcoin on one channel (Channel B), while sending it out on another channel (Channel A). In the end, you still have the same amount of Bitcoin, just on two channels instead of one.. And you helped someone send Bitcoin across the Lightning Network.
One node operator, just like you, opens a channel with another node. Channels are a fixed amount of Bitcoin which you can send back and forth like trading IOUs with friends.
Your new channel (Channel A) starts out with all the Bitcoin on your side, but eventually someone else who has a channel to you (Channel B) with Bitcoin on their side wants to send money to that other person. So your node will receive Bitcoin on one channel (Channel B), while sending it out on another channel (Channel A). In the end, you still have the same amount of Bitcoin, just on two channels instead of one.. And you helped someone send Bitcoin across the Lightning Network.
Why should you get involved?
One of the big criticisms of Bitcoin is that it cannot validate transactions fast enough to be a significant medium of exchange. Lightning network can handle orders of magnitude more transactions than the Bitcoin blockchain, and yet it is still Bitcoin. You're trading IOUs back and forth with other nodes. You can send sats back and forth thousands of times per second without needing to touch the Bitcoin blockchain.
When you spin up a node and tie into the Lightning network, you're helping bring closer Bitcoin's adoption as a medium of exchange.
One of the big criticisms of Bitcoin is that it cannot validate transactions fast enough to be a significant medium of exchange. Lightning network can handle orders of magnitude more transactions than the Bitcoin blockchain, and yet it is still Bitcoin. You're trading IOUs back and forth with other nodes. You can send sats back and forth thousands of times per second without needing to touch the Bitcoin blockchain.
When you spin up a node and tie into the Lightning network, you're helping bring closer Bitcoin's adoption as a medium of exchange.
How do you get involved?
You're going to need to setup a Bitcoin node. That might sound like a big step, but there are several ready-made solutions which make this process easy.
Once your node is setup, and you're pretty sure you can keep it up 24/7/365, you're going to need to buy some Bitcoin, and store it on your node. You should be familiar with self-custody before taking this step.
Next, you're going to want to open channels to other plebs. There are several great resources for finding others just like you who want to help the Lightning Network.
You're going to need to setup a Bitcoin node. That might sound like a big step, but there are several ready-made solutions which make this process easy.
Once your node is setup, and you're pretty sure you can keep it up 24/7/365, you're going to need to buy some Bitcoin, and store it on your node. You should be familiar with self-custody before taking this step.
Next, you're going to want to open channels to other plebs. There are several great resources for finding others just like you who want to help the Lightning Network.
- LightningNetwork.plus
- Plebnet.org - Also on Telegram
- Rings of Fire - Also on Telegram