The first Lightning transactions on the real Bitcoin network
Graph of the Lightning Network in the Reckplorer
After the Lightning Network has already spread on the testnet, there are now the first transactions in the real Bitcoin network, the Mainnet. Bitrefill, Torguard and Blockstream play a pioneering role.
There is probably little technologies about which so much written, speculated, argued and puzzled before they go live, like the Lightning network. We have been able to save ourselves since about last week. Lightning is live and it works, at least technically speaking.
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Bitrefill, a Stockholm startup that sells voucher cards and telephone credit against Bitcoin, experimented with Lightning in the Testnet in December. At the end of December there was now the first real purchase of credit for the smartphone via Lightning.
Mainset Lightning Network Paying My Actual Phone Bill With Actual Main Settings On @BiTrefill. Speed: Instant. Fee: Zero. Future: Almost here. pic.twitter.com/Futhn502LP
– Alex Bosworth (@alexbosworth) December 28, 2017
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However, the transaction was above all a test. Regular customers cannot yet pay by Lightning at Bitrefill. However, Bitrefill continues to expand the test zone. Another customer already reports that he paid a credit for Steam per Lightning.
Just made a payment to @Torguard through your channel. It Basically Pays for Itself After Just A Few Payments!
– Bitrefill (@bitrefill) January 13, 2018
In addition to Bitrefill, Torguard, a VPN provider, Lightning transactions on the Mainset has also accepted.
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Att BTC Users: Torguard Now Accepts Mainset Lightning Network BTC Payments. Ask support for details! #bitcoin #lightning pic.twitter.com/6agwGVC5XM
– Torguard (@Torguard) January 8, 2018
Lightning is not yet completely ready to produce, but if there is a loss, Torguard will come up for it. Because “the testnet is boring.“Since there is a Bitrefill customer who both gives a channel to Torguard and Bitrefill, the startup was able to use it to pay a VPN from Torguard with the coins that it was received by Lightning. So you can speak of a network, at least in rudimentary trains.
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It was only this week that block stream has been switched on. The company, which actually develops sidechains, has formed an online shop for merchandise, where you can only pay with Lightning. There are T-shirts and stickers here.
In fact, it is also urgently time for the Lightning network to ignite and bring transactions offchain. Because the Bitcoin blockchain has been drastically overcrowded for weeks, if not months. More than 100.000 transactions are waiting for their confirmation, and the fees have increased so far whether the narrow space in the blocks increased so far that more than $ 7 million are redistributed by the Bitcoin users to the miners during the day.
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The Lightning Network is now a method of forming a network of so -called Payment Channels. These make it possible to process transactions “offchain” by changing them before they are confirmed. It can be imagined, very roughly simplified, as if you were filling out a transfer slip, but do not throw in, but always change, so that only the final transaction is executed by the bank. You can find concrete information on how the Lightning Network works, in this introduction to the Payment Channels and this explanation of how the channels become a network.
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The previous transactions by Bitrefill, Blockstream and Torguard prove that Lightning works, at least at a technical level. Elizabeth Stark is not enthusiastic about Lightning Lab:
Bug testing should be on testnet, not Mainnet. Especialy When the Devs are Steit Losing Money. 🙃 https: // t.CO/QYX94V0VPR
– Elizabeth Stark ⚡ (@Starkness) January 17, 2018
Strong, actually an zealous Lightning gospel, calls block streams online shop a “bug testing in the Mainnet” and emphasizes that even the developers in the Lightning network lose money. The shop is irresponsible and will harm Lightning more than benefit. There are currently still numerous ways to lose money through the system, it is not yet ripe for this use.
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Nevertheless, more and more nodes are forming in the network. The Reckplorer currently shows 36 knots with 57 Payment Channels. While most knots only have one channel, hubs have already formed with more than ten channels. If you take these first, delicate trains as a trend, this indicates that Lightning will lead to a centralized network. But it is still far too early to say more about it.
In any case, it is questionable whether Lightning can really work economically. The smart contracts are complicated, but there is no point in the contrary that they process payments safely when all bugs are fixed. But it will take a while for this to be ready-and even longer until Lightning has made it to the wallets and online shops on a wide hallway.
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It is more problematic, however, that every payment must be there in a way before it is made. To pay something, you first have to open a channel, and you can only transfer the money that is in the channel. If a payment goes over several “hops” – and that is the idea of the network – every middleman must keep as much money in stock as is paid. Whether it is possible for a payment service provider to provide these structures at all, and like users who have just bought bitcoins, find their way into a channel, are just a few of the questions that have so far been anything but clarified.
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So you shouldn’t have too high expectations – but also not too much skepticism. Because every transaction that goes the path of Lightning helps Bitcoin to scale. And that’s always a win.