The price of Bitcoin may still be below par, for those whose crypto adventure began late last year, but that has not stopped the BTC lightning network from growing from strength to strength in 2018.
Data from BTC network tracker Bitcoinvisuals shows that on Dec 23, node channels that make up the lightning protocol were able to execute transactions worth 496.8 BTC, approximately $2 million at that time. It is now apparent that the next target will be 500BTC daily transactions.
The stats also showed that the number of connecting nodes on the BTC lightning network was 14,352, an all-time high. The massive growth in the protocol is a piece of welcome news for the crypto markets which has also begun recovering from the November bears.
What is the Bitcoin Lightning Network?
The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a protocol that was designed to solve the scalability problem that faces the Bitcoin blockchain to date. Anytime there is an upsurge in the number of Bitcoin users and transactions, the network becomes less scalable, taking within minutes and days for a transaction to be executed.
The Bitcoin Lightning Network exists as a second layer payment protocol on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It is like a channel that allows transactions to be recorded and executed on it until it is closed. The network can now add these transactions as blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain at a later time.
With massive adoption of Bitcoin expected shortly, the efficiency of the lightning network will go a long way to determine how quickly transactions are executed on the BTC blockchain. Is the protocol gradually getting ready for the next bull run?
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