Introducing Technology: Key Developers and Products Supporting the Lightning Network

Despite the growing popularity of the Lightning Network, not many companies support and develop the technology.Here are the key players and industry products supporting the development of the new solution.

Lightning Network (LN) - one of the mostpromising technology industry today. It can expand the capabilities of blockchains by significantly increasing the volume of transactions and making them faster and cheaper.

Developers are enthusiastically testing the technology.For example, a number of games have appeared with LN support, including an analogue of the computer game Fortnite – Lightnite. Last February, startup Fold added the ability to pay for Domino's pizza with Bitcoin on the Lightning network, and in April startup Moon launched BTC payments on Amazon via LN.

Although based on Lightning technologyNetwork working solutions are created, it is not easy to use, and sometimes risky. However, several major players in the industry are actively working on deploying LN to take it to a new level.

Implementations

Developers create so-called LN implementations- a code that implements the work of the payment network in practice. In addition, each team has its own approach. The most famous of the implementations is LND, created by Lightning Labs.

Many developers are working on othersimplementations, for example, Blockstream creates c-lightning, and the French company ACINQ - Eclair. Although the developers of each of these products are usually focused on different functions, and the implementations themselves are written in different programming languages, all three are compatible with each other.

Developers from these three groups continue to conduct weekly IRC chats to discuss future changes in protocol specifications. In addition, there are other Lightning implementations.

Rust-lightning is a focused implementationon security and led by Square Crypto engineer Matt Corallo, who has been writing Bitcoin code almost since the network arrived. Japanese startup Nayuta has created a Lightning implementation specifically designed for the Internet of Things.

As more and more deviceswhether they are toasters or televisions, connect to the Internet and collect data, they may need to make micropayments. Lightning may be the only payment system in the world that allows payments of such a small size.

Wallets

Most popular wallets, e.g.Coinbase and Blockchain.info do not yet support LN payments because the technology is still considered experimental. There are exceptions, such as Electrum, which added Lightning Network support last year.

This situation has created a demand for specialwallets with LN support, which have begun to be created by other developers. For example, ACINQ, the company behind the Eclair implementation, in October introduced a new Phoenix wallet that allows payments to be made in just three minutes.

Zap Desktop Wallet with Lightning Supportstarted as a side project of the young developer Jack Mallers (Jack Mallers). One of the features of the product is that it connects to the Bitcoin node. It stores all BTC transactions within the network for 11 years. Zap allows you to make LN transactions from a smartphone, while you can manage one of these nodes from home.

Additionally, Breez and BlueWallet wallets take different approaches to creating an interface for LN. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Support

All existing wallets assume thatUsers already have BTC. In this case, they can use one of these wallets to send BTC to the LN channel, protected by a smart contract, which allows payments in the Lightning Network.

But if users want to buy BTC withLN support, for example, for US dollars, they face difficulties. Most major exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase, and Huobi, do not represent this possibility. In particular, BTCC said that "most people do not yet understand the Lightning Network." The exchange plans to add LN support a bit later to attract more users.

Bitfinex exchange is the largest at the momentplatform that added support for Lightning. This gives users the ability to deposit and withdraw funds through LN. But so far such transactions make up only a small percentage of the total. Meanwhile, Breez gives users in 35 countries the ability to buy and sell Lightning-enabled Bitcoin directly using a credit card.

Although so far only a few companies in the industrysupport the technology, as the Lightning Network develops, it will become an integral part of wallets and exchanges. If the problems associated with the development of the user interface do not interfere, then one day Lightning can become the main payment method in BTC.

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