This past January Bitcoin.com reported on the Lightning Network alpha release which is a full implementation of Lightning called Lnd. Since then a lot has been going on with the Lightning project as developers are testing the code and building applications. This past April the team used the Lnd framework and bitcoin testnet coins to purchase beer at the popular Room 77 bar in Berlin. Although the project is still in it’s alpha phase, Lightning Network programmers say that developers are using Lnd to build “application-level projects (Lapps)” and new utilities that could benefit the bitcoin ecosystem.
“Lnd is still in alpha, but we’re already seeing a handful of developers building on top of it,” explains the Lightning Network developers. “Starting first with application-level projects, a few user interfaces, and concluding with repositories and utilities that developers on Lightning will find helpful.
Tipbots & User Interfaces
Masurel’s micropayment-enabled Lightning tipbot.
Other projects built using the Lnd framework that offer a “user interface” theme include the Mac OS graphical user interface (GUI) wallet designed by Alex Bosworth. The wallet is the first user interface for Macintosh computers that utilizes the Lightning protocol. Another platform is the lightweight Lnd Dashboard created by François Masurel that offers a web client and dashboard for Lnd that’s written in the NodeJS codebase. Additionally, there is a mobile and desktop Lightning platform produced by Jack Mallers. The application aims to support bitcoin, litecoin and has already been tested to purchase coffee.
The Lightning Network enabled Mac OS GUI wallet.
Monetizing Full Nodes With the Lightning Network and Bcoin
Back in April Bitcoin.com reported on the “Bcoin Hackathon” at the San Francisco-based Hackreactor HQ that featured over fifty developers messing around with the Bcoin protocol. The co-founder of Lightning, Olaoluwa Osuntokun (Roasbeef), was also in attendance, and the crowd witnessed a project called the “Monetizing Full Node Project.” The Lightning team details that the platform’s creators Michael Folkson, Alex Bosworth, and Nathan Basanese are continuing to work on this project utilizing Lnd for the payment network, Bcoin for full nodes, and Risk Bazaar for “risk contract” purposes.
Michael Folkson, Alex Bosworth, and Nathan Basanese creators of the Monetizing Full Node Project.