Hey Jessatoshis
I never hide that I play favourites when it comes to crypto and BTC is my pride and joy, I don't think I am a maxi, because I do feel alts should exist. I don't think there is anyone that can hold a candle to BTC when it comes to security, network effect and monetary policy.
As Bitcoin continues to increase in price and the distribution increases, different "balances" are made up of a series of UTXO's. The fragmentation of UTXO's mean more data is added to the chain, meaning an increase in fees for those fragmented transactions.
As soon as fees start to reach high values where micro-payments aren't economically viable. We saw people rage out and see the chain grind to a halt, as people bid up the price of transaction fees to get their transfers confirmed.
In the last run, we saw fees as high as $50, funny that this was at a price valuation of $20 000 which we've long since broke through and you don't see fees that high, why? Because it's not a frenzy to get your transactions settled on-chain.
We now have loads of sever side BTC transactions settled by exchanges at later stages, we have side-chains and wrapped assets that assist in taking the load off the BTC mainchain.
Lightning hitting exchanges
To help get BTC on and off-exchanges without killing you with fees, we're now seeing the lightning network adopted by various exchanges, making it easier to trade smaller pieces of BTC or rather keep your BTC in an LN wallet than on an exchange when you want to make trades.
Since payment channels on LN make it so affordable to move in and out of wallets, it makes more sense to hold your own Sats.
Bitfinex
Bitfinex has had lightning enabled transfers for a while now I think since 2020, and you can find support for deposits and withdrawals on their website here
Bittrex
Bittrex is looking to launch their BTC LN support along with synthetic assets on top of LN with the help fo start-up Zap inc as reported by C oindesk on 06 Jan 2021.
Okcoin
22 Jan 2021 saw OKCoin join the party, The Hong Kong-based exchange spoke to Coindesk about the release, and it has been confirmed by Nasdaq news.
CoinCorner
The UK based exchange CoinCoiner released news that they would be supporting Lightning network transfers in an article by Coindesk on 06 Jan 2021.
VBTC
Vietnamese Bitcoin exchange VBTC has integrated the Lightning Network, One of the countries oldest exchanges have opted to activate the service for users as reported by Coindesk on 25 Jan 2021.
Kraken
One of the worlds largest exchanges based in the US, Kraken announced that it would be launching lightning network support in 2021 as reported by CoinTelegraph on 16 December 2020
Lightning doesn't need more liquidity, but it helps
Most of the adoption of lightning has come in the last year, and I think the next 4 years moving into another halving will see LN continue to grow. As more exchanges adopt it, more capital will get locked into payment channels.
As the price of BTC increases that original capital is worth more and can support larger transactions as those same UTXO's get recycled on the LN network, improving the velocity of BTC.
Have your say
What do you good people of HIVE think? Have you been using the lightning network?
So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, comment "I am a Jessie."
Let's connect
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