Lightning Network Transactions May Come To The Bitcoin Blockchain Sooner Rather Than Later

By
Aaron Kesel
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0
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Lightning Network transactions are now possible to be implemented into the Bitcoin Blockchain as of tomorrow, according to a rumor circulating online by cryptocurrency analyst 

For Bitcoin users, once Lightning is implemented, Ferdous said it means “trustless instant nearly zero-fee transactions,” “scaling to billions of users” and “thousands of new apps.”

The Lightning network is still in beta testing, but it may come sooner now than later.

Blockstream tested the Lightning Network’s framework with Litecoin transactions earlier this year back in May with a successful transfer of the current 6th-ranked cryptocurrency, according to Coin Market Cap, from Zurich to San Francisco worth about 1.3 U.S. cents.

This small transfer took nearly a second according to Blockstream or 0.00000001 LTC (1 litecoin-satoshi.)

The team further tested another Zurich->SF payment of 1000 litecoin-satoshi, then a return of the original transaction to Zurich.

Potential applications are already on the near horizon, with Blockstream CEO Adam Back recently revealing on a Reddit thread he had held talks with BitTorrent CEO Bram Cohen regarding potential integration of Lightning microtransactions into torrent platforms.

As an example of what the Lightning network is capable of, Ripple recently tested its own version of the Lightning network with the goal of using the Interledger protocol to create a financial network to interconnect cryptocurrencies by the end of 2016 or early in 2017. The graph below explains how side chains work. You can find more information about the Lightning network from Blockstream described in an article in 2015.

While Lightning’s finalized implementation into Bitcoin’s network will mark a major milestone for the pioneer digital asset, concerns are already mounting about the implications of a second hard fork in the form of SegWit2x. While many fear that Bitcoin is too slow with its confirmation times, the Lightning network would accelerate the cryptocurrency allowing for faster transactions and for a majority of the network cheaper fees.

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