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RE: What is the Lightning Network

in #cryptocurrency7 years ago

Vaporware means something that doesn't really exist.

Using the "vaporware" word on lightning ... that's really contested. Yes, there exists implementations that are ready-to-use or nearly-ready-to-use, but there doesn't exist a network and there doesn't exist users, and we still don't know if there ever will.

One of the characteristics with vaporware is that the marketing people are (ab)using the promise of the upcoming product to keep customers from escaping to competitors; "yes, we're well aware about problem X in our product ... but don't worry, soon enough we'll have our VaporFantastic 3.0 out and it will for sure solve problem X!". Or, in Bitcoin speech: "yes, the 1 MB block size limit is causing too high fees right now ... but don't worry, soon enough lighning will be out and it will make it possible to transfer an unlimited amount of micro-transactions nearly for free!"

I really hope the statement "lightning is vaporware" will be proved false in the very soon future, but ... we will see ... and I think we need bigger blocks nevertheless.

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Indeed. The tech can be ready, but if nobody cares to use it then it might have never existed. Still, at least with litecoin Charlie Lee is working with wallet developers, so I presume there will be a web version much like MEW. And your point about forking is valid, that's why I think litecoin is still undervalued. It's the most similar codebase to bitcoin and already has a good volume. If it all boils down to choosing a bitcoin fork to use, why not choose the one that's shown it's stability.

Agree on bigger blocks.

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