Bitcoin Lightning Network’s Continued Developments Show a Bright Future for Its Ecosystem

On April 14, RR2Capital posted on Twitter highlighting the progress that the Bitcoin Lightning Network has managed to make up until March 2022. The Lightning Network was an invention to deal with the scalability issues on the Bitcoin blockchain, allowing the network to perform some of its services off-chain, reducing its overall congestion.

Increased Adoption

Arcane Research recently released a report titled ‘The State of Lightning: Volume 2,’ detailing the developments on the network as per transactions volumes, user base growth, adoption, and more.

It also looks into the growing funding that the Lightning Network is receiving, including from the companies joining hands with the revolutionary network to expand. 

The report shows that the public capacity growth rate of the network from September 2021 to March 2022 is 48%. The Lightning Network payment options have attracted approximately 80 million users as of this year, with a 410% year on year payment volume increase.

While this is but a hint of the greater picture, most metrics related to the network are showing exponential growth year on year.

Over the years since its implementation, several platforms are integrating the Lightning Network as a way to deal with competition in the crypto, blockchain, and finance markets.

Safe to say, the objective behind building the network is an enticing addition for investors, including institutional ones. 

After all, the advantages it offers are multiple, including nearly instantaneous speed, low transaction fees, and stands as a more energy efficient option. Furthermore, it acts as a Layer 2 and 3 scalability solution, a trending option to improve the functionality of different ecosystems in the industry today. 

Current Achievements

The market is taking note of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, mainly due to its implementation in an array of companies at the moment. 

While it was used for cash settlement in its early stages, the ecosystem has expanded its use cases into wallets, rewarding systems, more cash settlement applications, node management, banking solutions, peer to peer applications, gaming, social app, content creation, and more.  

Most integrations involve three implementations, including LND, Eclair, and C-lightning by Lightning Labs, Acniq, and Blockstream, respectively. The report highlights that the use cases a company aims at will determine which implementation to go along with.

Several of the notable names leveraging the cutting edge technology of the Lightning Network include exchanges such as Bitfinex, Okex, Okcoin, Kraken, PrimeBit, and more. Other examples are Fold, OpenNode, Strike, Paxful, CashApp, Loop, Electrum wallet, to mention but a few. 

Promising Future for the Lightning Network or Not?

According to the roadmap as explained by Arcane Research, there is more to expect from the Lightning Network’s ecosystem. It mentions that Bitcoin is not the only way for the network to grow as it can facilitate more convenient fiat transactions for users globally.

Additionally, it is the much-needed link for the unbanked to receive equal services with the capable communities. This point includes providing efficient financial infrastructure to enable financial services to reach people, including in rural areas. 

Nonetheless, its adoption is raising questions on whether it’s becoming a must-have tool for competition more than providing futuristic technology for companies.