Tag: Lightning Network

Categories
Crypto News

Lightning Network Daemon 0.5 Launched by Lightning Labs To Facilitate Usage

Lightning Labs, one of the teams developing Lightning Network (LN), released version Lightning Network Daemon 0.5 version. The new version will include improvements in privacy, transaction security and will facilitate interaction with light version customers thanks to Neutrino.

The new update was announced on Lightning Labs’ official site with a statement released on September 14th.

“We’ve made significant improvements to the security of user backgrounds, and we’ve also added another Tor option, and we’ve made many improvements to optimize performance and increase reliability,” the release note reads.

The main feature in the Lightning Network Daemon 0.5 is the use of Neutrino to facilitate the employment of users with mobile devices and tablets to interact with the main Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain using Lightning Network without having to run an entire node. Thus, Lightning Labs’ goal is to provide greater security and privacy to these clients.

New Lightning Network Daemon 0.5 version implemented the Neutrino protocol

“Neutrino drastically reduces the CPU usage, memory, storage, and bandwidth needed to use Lightning Network, as it is no longer necessary to run a full Bitcoin (BTC) node,” according to Lightning Labs. Also, they added a new level of security for managing data on the network with data loss protection features that now guarantees LN users to retrieve information from their channels even when a device is lost or corrupted.

This new version also includes double payments detection and an authentication scheme called Macaroons. Additionally, developers deepened the ability for users to use the Tor Browser to more effectively protect data about their Internet connection when interacting with Lightning Network.

Lightning Network Dameon 0.5 will include new elements in the payment infrastructure, but as the improvements are directly made to the LND code and operation, users will only notice these new features when using the microtransaction network.

Categories
Crypto News

Lightning Network Has More Public Nodes Than Ripple, Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Blockchains

The adoption of Lightning Network, the Bitcoin (BTC) network of fast payment channels, is growing exponentially this year. Now, Lightning Network has more public nodes than Ripple, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC), taken separately. At the end of August, a Twitter user reviewed how Lightning Network has more public nodes than Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchains altogether. The tweet sparked controversy, as the user gave no proof of this claim.

Lightning Network surpassed Ripple, Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchains regarding public nodes

However, a recent investigation shows that the user’s assertion was not entirely true as the Lightning Network has more public nodes than Litecoin (LTC), Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) networks, but only if we take them separately and compare them with Bitcoin (BTC)’s Lightning Network.

While in the Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash blockchains it is free to run a network node, in Lightning Network (LN), on the other hand, each node involves a minimum electrical expense and some Satoshis that are blocked as a guarantee for creating channels. Despite this, the public nodes of LN in Bitcoin (BTC) amount to 2522 (with a 10% increase in the last 30 days), according to statistics of 1ML.

The number of public nodes of Litecoin (LTC) is 261, while Ripple has 789. On the other hand, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network is closer to LN with 2124.

Although these numbers are quite encouraging, it is difficult to determine precisely how many Lightning Network nodes currently exist

According to an article published recently, the number of nodes shown in the latest Lightning Network’s graphs could be wrong, due to several factors. The first of these is the node view as a node generates its network graph, which may be limited, but still uses it in its function. Therefore, it is possible that a node does not offer a view of the whole network.

Similarly, it is currently recommended that wallets execute their nodes privately. Thus these private nodes are not visible to the network graph and are not calculated in the statistics.

Lightning Network, which already has its first physical node available on the market, currently has about 12,000 channels, according to the 1ML report. The network capacity is now at 116.50 BTC or about $756,000 according to the current price of Bitcoin (BTC).

Categories
Crypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) Payments Reached 4,000 Merchants Via CoinGate and Lightning Network

The payment gateway CoinGate announced the launch of a platform that will allow transactions through Lightning Network (LN), facilitating Bitcoin (BTC) payments to about 4,000 merchants. The information was released on September 5th on the CoinGate blog and explains that Bitcoin (BTC) payments on the Lightning Network debuted in San Francisco, United States, during the TechCrunch Disrupt 2018 event.

The purpose is to allow payment with minuscule fees and obtain instant confirmations, according to the company statement, adding that it sought to reduce technical barriers for merchants while allowing users to enable or disable Lightning Network with the push of a button.

“Since LN (Lightning Network) has yet to undergo a full live usage test, CoinGate had to ensure that transactions were secure and, if an error occurred, the company was ready to cover its customers’ losses. However, during the 8-week trial, the system did not experience any significant errors and was ready to maintain high volumes,” stated CoinGate.

CoinGate launched the first Bitcoin (BTC) payments processing platform to adopt Lightning Network

CoinGate had shown a broad interest in collaborating with the development of Lightning Network since May 2018 when it had already enabled a tool for its users to test the network. Since then, the possibility of launching the system has been evaluated, and now it becomes one of the first Bitcoin (BTC) payments processing platforms to adopt this technology and manage one of the more than 2,000 LN nodes.

With this initiative, the Lithuanian-based company, CoinGate, claimed to be looking for innovative ways to solve Bitcoin (BTC) scalability problem, to which Lightning Network has been seen as a good option.

Despite a Diar study, published last June, that argued that Lightning Network is not as effective at routing payments as it is believed, other companies follow the same line of action as CoinGate. One of them, the BTCPay application, is enabling the possibility of running a Lightning Network node and perform transactions with Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC).

Categories
Crypto News

Lightning Network Reaches Over 3,000 Nodes And Approaches 100 Bitocin (BTC) In Capacity

After expanding its capacity by 85% in July, Lightning Network (LN) on the Bitcoin (BTC) mainnet exceeded 3,000 nodes and got closer to 100 BTC in capacity in the first week of August. The data gathered by the monitoring resources site 1ml.com determined that the LN reached a total funds accommodation of 97 BTC or about $630,000.

Lightning Network experienced rapid growth in July

Initially deployed at the beginning of 2018, the Lightning Network experienced a high-paced growth in Q2 2018. In May, the network’s capacity was somewhere below 18 BTC and had explosive growth in July.

Even though the LN continued to expand rapidly, the relatively new technology keeps rising concerns and critics from a part of the Bitcoin (BTC) community and some crypto enthusiasts, mostly regarding the alleged centralization of the Lightning Network.

In reply to these accusations, the network’s developer, known as StopAndDecrypt, explained how the visual maps only give the illusion of the decentralization.

“The fact of the matter is, this network graph actually does a really terrible job of presenting the Lightning Network to you. It’s pretty and fun to play with, but it does everyone involved an analytic injustice,” the developer asserted in a blog post.

Lightning Network gains support despite its current issues

Also, many crypto fans and blockchain technology enthusiasts complain about the fact that Lightning Network might not have the expected ability to operate Bitcoin (BTC) transactions.

As pointed out in an older article on the Bitcoinist, the developers of the Lightning Network primarily focused on the stability of the network and not on the sums conducted on it, for the moment, so any transaction over approximately three cents is not guaranteed to be successfully carried on.

Despite its current flaws, Lightning Network on the Bitcoin (BTC) mainnet keeps raising the interest of investors, crypto community, and developers. Many came into support, with Charlie Lee, the Litecoin (LTC) founder, leading the pack, who stated that Lightning network would eventually be the “ultimate decentralized exchange.”

Categories
Crypto News

Bitrefill Allows Users To Buy Amazon Gift Cards With Bitcoin (BTC) And Other Cryptos Based On Lightning Network

The startup Bitrefill launched this Thursday, July 19th, a new service that will allow any user to purchase gifts cards from Amazon through its platform, using Bitcoin (BTC), as well as other cryptocurrencies through the Lightning Network (LN). Sergej Kotliar, CEO of Bitrefill, announced that “although this technology is very new, it will become the future of Bitcoin (BTC) payments.”

Through Bitrefill website, the users can choose the amount they want to top up on Amazon. Amounts can range from $5 to $1,000 per refill. Once the value is selected, the system will provide a coupon code with instructions on how to redeem it. It is important to remember that the purchase is only valid for the Amazon store in the United States.

Bitrefill allows users to buy Amazon gift cards with Bitcoin (BTC), as well as other cryptocurrencies, based on Lightning Network

In the top-up process, the users must also provide their email address so that Bitrefill can send updates on the status of the order and give the top-up PIN code. Among the cryptocurrencies that the platform processes are Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dash (DASH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Lightning Network offers a clear separation of concerns. The portfolio handles everything related to the blockchain by obtaining confirmed transactions, so that when the payment comes to us, it is already confirmed. That is, the correct amount of BTC is going in the right direction.

Sergej Kotliar, CEO of Bitrefill

The aim of Bitrefill is to enable people to live with cryptocurrency, first by enabling ways for people to spend their coins and second by offering ways to help people earn an income from it. The company gained attention in the fall of 2017 by being one of the first to join the Lightning Network.

Bitrefill is also known in dozens of countries for its recharging of prepaid telephone lines, internet, and basic telephony.

Exit mobile version