Back in 2010, a programmer paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, and in 2018, the programmer used the Lightning Network to buy two more pizzas and paid 0.00649 BTC. This story is talked about in the encryption community, and on the other hand, it also supports the development of the Lightning Network. As "Bitcoin's L2", the Lightning Network has always had superior performance in payment scenarios. In the past six months, with Lightning Labs raising $70 million (April this year) and Lightning Network-based Strike raising $80 million (September 27), the Lightning Network has once again attracted attention.
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What is Lightning Network
Lightning Network (Lightning Network) is a second-layer payment protocol on Bitcoin that aims to enable fast transactions between participating nodes and has been proposed as a solution to Bitcoin's scalability problem.The scheme uses a peer-to-peer system to make small payments in cryptocurrencies through a two-way payment channel network without entrusting custody of funds.
Simply put, the Lightning Network supports the connection between two users.image description。
Schematic diagram of the channel between node A and node Q
In principle,When a user initiates a transaction to another user, first, the Lightning Network opens a channel between the two parties in which they can submit funds; then, they can use this channel to send BTC instantly, with almost zero transfer fees and without Broadcast each transaction to the base layer of the Bitcoin blockchain.Either party can settle on the Bitcoin blockchain and close the channel at any time.
Performance-wise, in the Lightning Network, as of September 27, 2022, according to1ml.com, the BTC capacity in the Lightning Network exceeds 4,908 BTCs; regarding TPS data, due to privacy protection, there is no specific TPS data, but the theoretical TPS is about 1 million; currently, the BTC nodes participating in the Lightning Network have reached 17,829, and the number of channels has reached 86,334.
In addition, the average settlement time of the Lightning Network is less than one minute, mostly in milliseconds. In the actual test, the user's payment experience is comparable to WeChat Pay and Alipay. In contrast, the confirmation of the Bitcoin blockchain The time is averaged every ten minutes. according todollarcostbitcoin.comAccording to website data, the fee per transaction on the Lightning Network is about $0.0001. In the end, the payment experience of Lightning Network is not inferior to that of centralized electronic payment, especially in cross-border transfers.
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Zap - Lightning Network Wallet
Zap is one of the earliest wallets launched in the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Users can use Zap to transfer funds to other users on the Lightning Network.
First, the user needs toVisit the official websiteAnd download the client, after downloading the client, create a wallet according to the general process.
After the user selects the folder where the data is stored, the user starts to synchronize the blockchain data and needs to wait for about 7 minutes. After the data synchronization is completed, the page of entering the wallet is shown in the following figure:
In addition to the common payment functions of Zap, users can click the request button on the upper right to set the payment to be received, and then generate a QR code for payment. Currently supports setting options such as payment unit, remarks, and invoices.
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Strike - payment tool based on Lightning Network
StrikeIt is a payment tool based on the Lightning Network. Users can pay, receive or buy Bitcoin through Strike instant transfer. Strike's latest big news was done on September 27th$80 million in Series B funding, Ten31 led the round. Its predecessor was Zap, which launched Strike last year.
At present, Strike is focusing on the US market. Its application is only available in the US (except Hawaii, New York and South Dakota), El Salvador and Argentina. If the IP of the user when registering is outside the above-mentioned regions, the account cannot be created.
Strike is also working with Amazon, Nike, Uber, and Shopify (the United States likes to help merchants build an e-commerce platform) and other companies with a large user basecash rebates, users who pay with Strike can get cash rebates to expand the use of Strike.
In addition to cooperating with multiple companies to carry out consumer rebate activities, Strike is alsolaunch credit card。
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Bitrefill - Lightning Network e-commerce platform
BietrefillIt is an e-commerce platform built on the Lightning Network that supports BTC payments. After registering an account with Bitrefill, users can purchase gift cards and recharge mobile phone bills in more than 170 countries/regions.
The platform will recommend different promotional activities according to the different regions set by the user on the upper right. When the user completes the product selection and will make the payment, the user can choose to pay by digital currency, and the delivery is usually instant. If you use the payment The tool is the Strike mentioned above, and you will also get a 10% consumer rebate. The settlement page is as shown in the figure below
