An early beta version of the Lightning Network for scaling Bitcoin can be tested on the testnet.
Lightning Labs, a San Francisco-based startup working on the Bitcoin protocol, has written a daemon for the Bitcoin testnet to implement the Lightning Network.
This new Bitcoin secret should also have a suitable user interface
Lightning Labs wants this beta version to give Bitcoin secret developers an opportunity to experience off-chain transactions. Off-chain transactions are the core idea with which the Lightning Network wants to solve Bitcoin's scaling problem.
There were already some test implementations of the Lightning Network before, but according to the startup the one presented should be the most complete to date. So the presented version is supposed to provide possibilities to open and close channels and for transactions to find a path through the network.
Joseph Poon is one of the authors of the white paper that first introduced the Lightning Network to the world and co-founder of Lighning Labs. He says the idea behind the release is to get developers ready for the launch of the Lightning Network.
It will also make it easier for companies to quickly integrate the new concept into their existing business models. In addition there will be not only a Walkthrough, but a kind Faucet, which is to make a few Satoshis available to interested developers for test transactions.
Currently the developers mentioned must still operate a Node, in order to test the release, one works however eagerly on a version, which functions with a lite-client.
Beside Lightning Labs Bitfury, Blockchain Lab and Chaincode Labs participated in this release. Who would like to find out more about the features in the release is referred to the in-progress standards.
What does it take to adopt the cryptosoft Network?
The path between prototypes and the cryptosoft market can often be a long and rocky one like here https://www.forexaktuell.com/en/cryptosoft-scam/. It's no different with the presented release of the Lightning Network, for the normal community using Bitcoin a release version is still far away: The current implementation of the Lightning Network is compatible with a Bitcoin testnet, but only to a limited extent with the currently running Bitcoin network.
The problem is that the Lightning Network works ideally with Segregated Witness or SegWit for short. The problem with SegWit is that although many in the community are enthusiastic about Segregated Witness, only 25% of the miners have installed a compatible client since November.
With the daemon release of the Lightning Network, Lightning Labs hopes that this version will be a further motivation in the direction of a soft fork in favor of Segregated Witness, as its implementation could also work without Segregated Witness, if the user experience is worse and the functionality is reduced.
