Photo by on Leon Contreras Unsplash has had scaling issues for years but since the activation of SegWit, it will allow making leaps in transaction throughput. You can take advantage of this upgrade right now by using a SegWit enabled wallet and save up to 30%-40% in fees as by . Bitcoin pointed out Subhan Nadeem Widespread SegWit adoption will help solve Bitcoin scalability issues today but that will not be enough in the future. Although there are other existing scaling solutions being worked on like and , scaling limitations of an open cannot be . Schnorr Signatures MAST blockchain escaped Enter Lighting network. It is a second layer solution built on top of Bitcoin. It is being actively developed right now and you can already perform test transactions on Bitcoin testnet without worrying about any lost funds. : Savjee Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Simply Explained! In this post, I’ll show you how you can experience the Lightning Network today and perform payments to other wallets and services. Option 1 — A web wallet The simplest way to experience Lightning is to head over to . It is a web-based Lightning wallet created by . You can start doing payments immediately without any configuration. Ask a friend to set up the same wallet or open a separate browser and you can send payments back and forth by exchanging invoice requests. To pay for a service, go to and try to pay for an article. HTLC.me Alex Bosworth Yalls.org wallet interface HTLC.me For the next wallet options, you will have to obtain testnet coins to play with. I recommend you visit either or after you set up your phone or desktop wallet and send those coins to the deposit address. backend.hamburg/faucet coinfaucet.eu Option 2 — Desktop wallets Currently, there are 2 wallets that are fairly easy to setup on your computer. The wallet and . Both use (LND) as the back-end client so you can use the same balance and channels between both apps. Lightning-app Zap Lightning Network Daemon Zap wallet This is my favorite Lightning-enabled wallet. It has a fantastic user interface and tries to make Lightning payments as easy as possible. It is being developed by with multiple contributors. He on how to get started. I think this is the best option for beginners to start testing the Lightning Network. Visit to learn more. Jack Mallers has made easy to understand tutorials zap.jackmallers.com Zap Wallet Zap Wallet tutorial Lightning App Lightning app is developed by Lightning Labs, the same company that develops the LND client. To set it up on your PC or Mac, head over to and download the latest version, unzip the archive, and launch the “Lightning” executable file. their GitHub release page Lightning App At first, you will have to open channels manually but once you are connected, LND will start to map the network and will continue to open channels automatically. Both desktop wallets store wallet data in the same folder so technically you can use the same account with both apps at the same time. Option 3 — A phone wallet Multiple organizations are working on their own Lightning clients. This is possible because the Lightning network is a standardized protocol. Currently, there are 3 software implementations of Lightning: , , and . Developers behind the Eclair client have created the first Lightning-enabled Android app. You can get it from the Google Play store. This wallet requires you to open channels manually but the app has a one-click connect feature that will establish a channel with an Eclair node. That will allow you to pay for a coffee. Check out on how to do the payment. LND Eclair C-lightning here Starblocks their detailed guide ACINQ Eclair wallet Testnet Lightning services There are multiple apps created to demonstrate how Lightning payments would work if you would pay for a product or service. For the time being, it is easiest to open a direct channel with a service to perform a payment. Do note, however, the exciting thing about Lightning is the ability to pay for services that you do not have direct connections to. LND developers have made a more extensive list of Lapps (Lightning Apps). Here are the most popular ones on Bitcoin testnet: here — Micro blogging powered by Lightning Yalls — Pre-paid phone top-up service Bitrefill — Lightning web wallet htlc.me — Lightning coffee Starblocks Notable milestones in Lightning development post Segwit activation The Lightning network is evolving rapidly and here are some notable milestones that are bringing Lightning closer to reality: Work towards a unified Lightning protocol First Lightning cross-chain swap from Bitcoin to Litecoin First interoperable Lightning transactions using real Bitcoin between different lightning client implementations Lightning Labs co-founder Elizabeth Stark talks about the Lightning network on Bloomberg First mainnet payment on Bitreffil #Recless TorGuard VPN starts accepting Lightning payments on mainnet Even more #Recless folks using unstable alpha software to perform payments with REAL money Blockstream Introduces Lightning Charge — a micropayment processing system that makes it easy to build apps on top of Lightning #Recless Blockstream?? opens an online store that accepts Bitcoin Lightning payments only ACINQ introduces Strike — a stripe-like API for Lightning It is exciting to see how Bitcoin is progressing but this is still alpha software, so I discourage anyone to use it on mainnet right now because the probability of losing funds is very high if you don’t know what are doing, and there are plenty of bugs in the software. People running alpha software on Bitcoin mainnet is also a distraction for developers as they will lose valuable time because of the need to shift from being a protocol developer to a customer-support representative. Some reactions to these developments from the community were something along the lines of “Why is the progress so slow?” or “We needed this YESTERDAY.”. It is true that Lightning would’ve helped solve most problems in Bitcoin but keep in mind that no one has any obligation to do anything in Bitcoin. It is a completely open system and anyone can contribute as much or as little as they want. Building great things is hard. Innovation is even harder. Add to the fact that Bitcoin is not just your typical software but a multi-billion dollar store of value. So it is very wise to take a conservative approach and make sure that the software is safe. Elon Musk mentioned this point in his talk about colonizing Mars: Technology does not automatically improve. It only improves if a lot of really strong engineering talent is applied to the problem that it improves. If you are interested in these developments, I encourage you to experiment with all of the software mentioned above. Start with and if you find this worth to test out further, install Zap and start opening Lightning channels and doing payments. HTLC.me If you liked my post, consider giving it a clap so that more people can see it! If you have enjoyed huge Bitcoin gains and don’t know where to put them, consider tipping me at bc1qn503a4aelxrwdwzcvrqfdraskj4htge4nscn5u so I can use it as fuel to write more Bitcoin articles! Next year, that will be a Lightning link for sure! I love to write about technology and other things as well, so please feel free to follow me on Twitter and Medium !
