Zappedia

A Dedicated Blog for Computer Geeks

  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Best Motherboard for AMD FX 8350
    • Best Single-board Computers for Emulation
    • Best 17-inch Laptop Under $500
    • Best Motherboard for AMD Ryzen 7 2700x
    • Best Laptop for Medical School Students
    • Best Motherboards for i7-9700K
    • Best 11×17 Color Laser Printer
    • Best Laptops for Video Editing Under $500
    • Best CPU Cooler For i7 9700k
  • Internet
    • Browser
    • Networking
    • Applications
    • Internet Problems
    • Server
    • Wifi
    • Tech
  • Hardware
    • Input
    • Output
    • Power Source
    • Processor
    • Storage
  • Security
    • Application Security
    • Cyber Security
    • Information Security
    • Network Security
    • Passwords
  • Software
    • Application Software
    • Software Testing
    • System Software

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is growing fast; Umbrella software provides a boost.

The Bitcoin lightning network is growing fast. The number of nodes in the network and the bitcoin capacity are increasing exponentially. Umbrella, free, open-source software with which you can run a Bitcoin and Lightning node, is extremely popular due to its user-friendliness. No fewer than 9 out of 10 new lightning nodes use the software.

One of the basic tenets of Bitcoin is that anyone can independently monitor transactions on the blockchain to make sure everything is correct. You do this with special software that downloads and checks all transaction information from the blockchain. You then have a so-called Bitcoin node. When you connect a Bitcoin wallet to it, you can ensure that your wallet has the correct transaction history.

Lightning Network

The Lightning Network is a network protocol and so-called second-layer scalability solution, with which bitcoin payments are lightning-fast and cheap. You can make a bitcoin transaction with it for just a few almost instant satoshis without being at the expense of decentralization. The technology is still under development.

The Lightning Network works based on payment channels that users open to each other, with which mutual bitcoin transactions can be made ‘off-chain’. Only the final settlement is registered on the blockchain. The usual transaction costs on the blockchain and the block time of 10 minutes are therefore hardly applicable anymore. It also provides privacy benefits.

For the first two years, developers mainly used the new technology on the Bitcoin network. Now, among others, El Salvador uses the Lightning Network with the Chivo wallet, Twitter with the tipping function, Substack with subscriptions and many others.

The numbers, all three as of the beginning of this year, are clear:

Number of Bitcoin on the Lightning network: ~3080 BTC (193% growth)

Number of active Lightning nodes: ~ 27,950 (81% growth)

Number of active channels: ~ 76,265 (111% growth)

These are minimal estimates because it is unknown how many remote nodes and channels there are in the network. According to a study by Bitmex, only 72.2% of Lightning channels are publicly known.

Umbrella

Umbrella is free open source software for a Raspberry Pi minicomputer, with which you can easily set up a Bitcoin and Lightning node. Currently, Raspberry Pis are sold out almost everywhere due to chip shortage and high demand.

The strong growth in the number of nodes in the Bitcoin Lightning Network is partly due to the user-friendly software. Umbrella has made sure that anyone, even if they don’t have a technical background, can run a Lightning node. In the Netherlands, running your node is popular among bitcoiners. With about 377 nodes, we are number 4 on the list of countries with the most nodes, above Canada and the United Kingdom.

El Salvador

According to profit-maximizer.app , Legalizing bitcoin in El Salvador is perhaps the major news of the past year. It obliges every company to accept Bitcoin for all kinds of transactions. As a result, people can make payments with both on-chain and Lightning. For example, watch a video of Aaron from the Bitcoin Show making a Bitcoin Lightning payment at a Pizza hut in El Salvador.

The government-sponsored Chivo wallet also uses the Lightning network. As a result, the app has over 3 million downloads in less than a month. Therefore, El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption is reflected in the growing liquidity on the lightning network.

Business Adoption

In addition to making it easier for bitcoiners to run a lightning node and the first country to embrace bitcoin (Lightning), attention to the lightning network is also growing among companies. Twitter and Substack, among others, have implemented the second layer of the Bitcoin network.

The social media platform will use the tipping function to ensure that the 330 million monthly active users can quickly receive bitcoin. For now, it is only iOS users who can do this. Twitter is partnering with Strike for the implementation of bitcoin Lightning. Currently, the ‘regular’ Bitcoin network has about ~200 million users. It was as many as the internet in 1997. As this number grows, the importance of the Lightning network will become more and more critical, according to Arcane Research. The researchers expect no fewer than 700 million users by 2030.

Share this

Filed Under: Software

About Allen

Allen is a blogger from New York. Blogging is his passion and hobby. His goal is to make people aware of the great computer world and he does it through writing blogs.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

LET’S CONNECT

Recent Posts

  • 9 Issues Preventing Productivity on a Computer
  • How to Edit and Send Faxes From Your Computer?
  • How to Create an NFT Marketplace: Brief Guidelines & the Best Examples from the World NFT Market
  • How to Safely Store Your Cryptocurrency with an Online Crypto Wallet
  • Ecommerce 101: How Does Print-On-Demand Work?
  • Exploring the Fascinating World of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
  • What is a SATA Hard Drive? Important Stuff You Should Know
  • How Do Wireless Earbuds Work? Everything You Need to Know
  • What Are Key-Value Databases?
  • LinkedIn Rolls Out New Pricing Structure for API Access

Categories

  • Application Security (9)
  • Application Software (14)
  • Applications (25)
  • Browser (13)
  • Cyber Security (15)
  • Device Driver (8)
  • Digital Marketing (6)
  • Hardware (68)
  • Information Security (26)
  • Input (14)
  • Internet (129)
  • Internet Fun (7)
  • Internet Problems (9)
  • Network Security (12)
  • Networking (34)
  • Output (18)
  • Passwords (3)
  • Power Source (10)
  • Processor (20)
  • Reviews (9)
  • Security (61)
  • Server (16)
  • Software (64)
  • Software Testing (8)
  • Storage (13)
  • System Software (11)
  • Tech (36)
  • Users (1)
  • Wifi (14)
Contact Us
Terms of service
Cookie Policy
Privacy Policy
About Us
Affiliate Disclosure

Copyright © 2023