Bitcoin’s Lightning Network tapped a new record as it locked nearly 3,400 BTC which is a staggering 220% surge, a year ago over the same course of time. The layer-2 scaling protocol built on top of a blockchain such as bitcoin is aimed at enabling faster transactions among participating nodes.
The second layer solution applied to bitcoin uses micropayment channels to ramp up the blockchain’s capability to conduct transactions more efficiently. According to defipulse, the present capacity of the network stands at around 3.42 k bitcoin which is valued at roughly $142 million at the time of publication.
This indicates that its users can send and receive close to $142 million worth of BTC via the network. Over the past year, the adoption of the Lightning Network, since it launched back in 2018, has risen at a tremendous pace.
Many in the crypto community seeing an exponential rise in the rate of adoption anticipated the network to chart bigger successes in 2022.
However, CoinShares in its latest Digital Asset Outlook report observed that LN is yet to become a mainstream product as it still caters to a small part of the market, despite being around for four years.
Lightning’s lack of popularity might be due to the fact that the majority of the market still perceives Bitcoin as a long-term investment and a hedge against inflation, choosing to hold the asset instead of using it for payments.
Nevertheless, Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has witnessed some huge usage contributing to its expansion.
Lightning Network major integrations
Last year, El Salvador’s native Chivo wallet integrated Lightning Network node which is often touted as the ‘most high-profile implementation.’ Another instance is the Online publishing platform Substack enabling a similar feature in late summer, with OpenNode allowing its 500,000 users to purchase subscriptions using Bitcoin.
A few weeks ago Mobile payments provider Cash App also announced that it will adopt Lightning to its 36 million customers in the U.S. and the U.K.
Having said that, even if Lightning is still a ‘niche product’, it still has the potential to play a major role in the crypto landscape for the years ahead.