Against Lightning Network

Clemens Ley and I spent a year and a half implementing a routed payment channel network similar to Lightning Network. We had our technology working on mainnet Bitcoin before Lightning Network because our protocol was not dependent on segwit, and segwit didn’t launch until later.

We abandoned routed payment channels in mid-2017 when it become clear that it didn’t work as promised and it was impossible to make it user-friendly. We switched to Bitcoin Cash instead because it solved the problem we had: fast and cheap transactions.

I have written a number of articles and created a number of videos and presentations about this.

The most important arguments I have created against Lightning Network are these:

My arguments are not the only arguments against Lightning Network. I recommend anyone who is interested in Lightning Network to consider what their end goal is and to critically evaluate whether Lightning Network can accomplish that goal. Lightning Network does not create a fast and cheap payment network. Does it accomplish anything else that matters? I do not believe so.

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Ryan X. Charles

Founder & CEO of Money Button

https://www.ryanxcharles.com