On the Lightning network, 2,800 BTC, about 0.02% of the total in circulation, is locked. So far in September, the Lightning network has grown by around 10%.

Lightning, which allows making instant payments in Bitcoin with very low-cost fees, continues to grow. The network has reached all-time highs both in adoption and in the number of locked BTC. Within these parameters, the growth has been more than 200% in the last year.

In April, the Lightning network had grown by around 95% in just one year. Factors such as the number of active nodes on the system, which by then were almost 10,000, contributed to that.

The current figures reveal that the number of both nodes and active channels has grown considerably. They have increased by more than 200% and 100%, respectively, in the last year.

Regarding payment channels, the figure is over 72 thousand public channels, not including private channels. In September of last year, there were 32 thousand, which represents a growth of 226%.

In the case of the amount of BTC locked on the Lightning network, the figure reached 2,800 BTC, equivalent to more than USD 100 million.

In September 2020, the growth was around 258%, going from 1,100 locked BTC to the current figure. There was a 22% boost in locked BTC just in September of this year.

More than 15 new nodes have joined the network, an increase of 50% since April this year and 100% since September 2020.

Nodes correspond to computers or servers keeping a copy of the entire network. They are responsible for sending payments to the destination addresses.

There Has Been a Technological Growth on the Lightning Network

The number of nodes and channels, besides the technological development, are those that indicate the growth of the Bitcoin Lightning network. This year, the developers have introduced innovations that represent significant improvements to that protocol.

An upgrade will allow the opening of payment channels with third-party financing, offering the possibility of sending and receiving payments on the network. To do that, users will not have to lock their funds before using them.

In June, users learned that reusable invoices would become available on the network for the Lightning Network Daemon client. That allows a payment invoice, the counterpart of a wallet address on the Bitcoin network, to have no expiration date. That makes the user experience easier within that second layer Bitcoin solution.

The Lightning Network Needs to Work to Increase Its Adoption

There are new implementations under development, which favors the adoption of the Lightning network. For example, Twitter enabled a tipping system that uses Bitcoin and the Lightning network to send and receive funds.

P2P exchange Paxful recently enabled the function of receiving and withdrawing BTC through the Lightning network.

Some specialists consider that the Bitcoin Lightning network still has to work hard to increase its adoption at the infrastructure level. It needs developments in that area to support the massive demand for transactions occurring when large platforms massively adopt it.

By Alexander Salazar

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