6 poststagged with “lightning-network”
The public Lightning Network crossed 20,000 nodes and 60,000 channels this year. Payment volume, by any honest measure, has barely moved. The infrastructure got built. The demand did not show up. The gap between the two is the story the ecosystem keeps refusing to tell.
Nigeria processes more P2P Bitcoin volume than any country except the US. Kenya runs mobile-first Lightning payments. South Africa's central bank is integrating Bitcoin into its regulatory framework. The continent Western media ignores is building the future of money.
Nostr Wallet Connect quietly turned Bitcoin's Lightning Network into a permissionless payment layer that works across any app, any country, no KYC, no intermediary, no platform risk. The financial system just got an upgrade it can't undo.
Controlling just 2% of Lightning nodes is enough to deanonymize payments. As adoption accelerates, Lightning's privacy model deserves honest scrutiny.
Starting March 30, Square enables Lightning payments by default across 4 million merchants. Zero fees through 2026, instant settlement, no chargebacks.
While skeptics debate whether Lightning 'works,' a parallel economy runs on it. Nostr zaps, merchant payments, cross-border remittances - it's not theoretical.