Video - Lightning Network - Opening the World to Streaming Money

The Lightning Network is dependent upon the underlying technology of the blockchain. By using real Bitcoin/blockchain transactions and using its native smart-contract scripting language, it is possible to create a secure network of participants which are able to transact at high volume and high speed.

TRANSCRIPT

Essentially the Lightning Network was developed to remedy the block size issue of Bitcoin, and to allow for micro payments- which are currently unable to be transacted due to the minimum requirement of current transactions, and the fact that the current transaction fees render micro payments useless.

To put it very plainly, Bitcoin transactions take too long, part of this is due to the amount of transactions taking place, along with the amount of information that is included in these transactions.

As you may remember, I published a video a few days ago talking about segregated witness. That proposal would change how information from the transactions are stored, and the Lightning Network would change how many transactions themselves would be recorded onto the blockchain.

The lightning network would also enable micro payments by allowing for the minimum of 1 satoshi for a transaction, and the fees for that transaction would be incredibly tiny. This could revolutionize yet again the way we think of money. This would enable us to “stream money” much like how we stream videos and music, making money incredibly liquid and eliminating third party middle men.

If I’ve officially peaked your interest and you’d like to learn more, check out the links posted down below for a few articles and a great video where the bitcoin master Andreas Antonopoulos goes further into detail about this topic.