Bitcoin Lightning
The promise of the Lightning Network was simple: cheaper transactions, faster transaction times and both of these together would allow microtransactions like buying a cup of coffee or tipping a waitress.
The premise was simple; Bitcoin is built for security, but a second layer or second blockchain, could be built for higher speed and lower transaction cost.
This simple promise and this simple premise have turned out to be a little more complicated then we thought. But that statement doesn't mean there are no existing examples of people or companies using the Lightening Netwrok for exacty that, they do exist, but it's complicated.
But lets look at the good things first.
The Promise
The promise was simple, in an age of many so called second layer solutions, which are simply brand new blockchains, which are faster and cheaper to operate, and tied to the old blockchain through software magic. It's a simple idea, but it proved difficult to achieve until recently, when Bitcoin was in fact 12 years old. Still quite young in technological terms, as the internet itself is not yet 40? But it seemed like a lifetime to those who were waiting.
The Premise
New blockchain, Lightning, so named for it's lightning like Speed.
Off-chain transactions, meaning transactions not requiring the services of the computers which normally process transactions and update the digital ledger of all buys, spends, sells and transfers of Bitcoin. The transactions would occur off the Bitcoin blockchain, where they were slow and costly, but instead on the Lightning blockchain, where they were fast and cheap, then the transactions would be batched and added in large number to the Bitcoin blockchain, with the people running the Lightning blockchain acting as validators or those insuring through the use of software, that the ledger entries were correct, and no double spends or thievery were occurring.
The Practice
And while in theory and in practice, the goals of fast, and cheap transactions have been achieved. Plus their achievement has set the stage for micro transactions, like the purchase of coffee, sandwiches, dinner or a basket of grocieries. This the Holy Grail in Judeo-Christian terms or the Big Big Goal in Bitcoin terms.
But there's a catch, the people who create the lightning nodes are enabled by the software to potentially cheat, lie and steal.
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Oh... really...? ?
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Big weaknesses for sure in a monetary system.
And these are the kinks currently being worked out.
If we learn anything from history, nothing challenges a persons character and intergrity more then the opportunity to get rich and provide for your family and descendents by cheating other people, once or twice or several times.
So in a short, In my humble opinion, non-technical person that I am, the Lightning Network works really well, when you are dealing with very small sums, that no one wants to steal.
But with larger sums, all bets are off, and so far you really have to trust the lightning node operators, or run your own node to insure honesty and accuracy.
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Now while there are honest people out their running Lightning Nodes and for many of them the Lightning transactions are such a small part of their business they probably won't ever cheat.
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It is the nature of these things to grow in size as they are adopted and then we will be looking at large sums of bitcoin accumulatively and then greeds ugly head will appear.
So from my simple, non-technical perspective, lightning is a beautiful technology, that achieves it's primary goals, but it falls down in the Trustlessness Department, which is to many Bitcoiners and cryptocurrency advocates, the single most important aspect of cryptocurrency. So you decide what grade to give it.
