Bitcoin Lightning Network capacity costs through 4000 BTC

by · July 6, 2022

There is reason to celebrate from the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Lightning Network reached the 4,000 Bitcoin (BTC) public capacity milestone, meaning $ 120 million in value is ready for peer-to-peer payments.

Lightning Network first broke the 1000 BTC barrier in August 2020 and the 2000 BTC barrier in July 2021. Capacity has doubled in 18 months.

Lightning Network’s capacity growth since January 2022. Source: Glassnode.

CoinCorner CEO Daniel Scott told the Cointelegraph that “we had slow and steady growth with Lightning capacity to begin with, but since Jan.[uary] In 2021, the upswing has been strong. “

Danny Brewster, CEO of the UK-based Bitcoin exchange Fast Bitcoins, told the Cointelegraph that Lightning Network capacity “probably passed 4K a long time ago with private channel calculations not being publicly available.”

“With that said, the steady growth has been a good start for the Lightning Network, and I envisage that it will continue into the future, as long as all stakeholders, from developers to entrepreneurs who build businesses, continue to push forward.”

A layer-2 payment protocol built on Bitcoin’s base layer, Lightning Network enables almost instant final transactions. In the following video, Paco de la India – a Bitcoin-powered world traveler – buys a pair of shorts from Mozambique-based Bitcoiner Jorge, using the Lightning Network:

Leading analyst for Glassnode, James Check, told Cointelegraph, “The expansion of the Bitcoin Lightning Network seems to be going out of the ‘ruthless’ phase, and to the proper experimentation of early users.

Related: The Lightning Network Lunch: A Bitcoin Contactless Payment History

“As wallet design and user experience improve, more cracks can be resolved and the network will mature. The sustained growth of public Lightning capacity and channel numbers is a reflection of this vote of increasing trust and increasing utilization,” he said.

Scott agreed, sharing that the positive trend is likely to continue “as more companies adopt Lightning and we see more utility cases coming to fruition.”

“The impact of El Salvador using Bitcoin seems to have been a turning point for Lightning, giving it confidence and proving a real utility issue.”

According to data from 1ML, the average and median transaction cost of sending Satoshi (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin) over Lightning is well below $ 0.01, proving that it packs a lot as payment technology.

Brewster concludes that it is a “fantastic start, but a long way to go. It really is still early!”