Bitcoin Supercharged
Why the Lightning Network is a game-changer for Bitcoin
I recently wrote about the fundamental problems that Bitcoin solves. I stated that Bitcoin doesn’t function well as a medium of exchange due to slow transaction times.
The Lightning network changes this.
In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into the Lightning network and what it means for the future of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Transaction Speeds
If you want to use a currency to actually buy things, transactions need to be processed quickly.
Imagine if you went to a shop and swiped your debit card. But instead of waiting a few seconds for the transaction to validate you had to wait 30 minutes or more…
This is what the world would look like if Bitcoin were used for buying everyday goods. If you are lucky your payment could take a matter of seconds. But if you are unlucky it could take over an hour.
To put this in perspective the VISA network typically processes over 1500 transactions per second, whereas Bitcoin only processes between 3 and 7 transactions per second.
Lightning Network
The lightning network is a layer 2 protocol that dramatically speeds up Bitcoin…
