Lightning Network capacity approaches $3 million as new channels see 40% growth in a month

Off the back of recent hype surrounding the layer-two Bitcoin scaling and micropayment solution, the growth of the Lightning Network's ecosystem looks to be reaching the mainstream

With the recent rally in the Bitcoin market, the Lightning Network (LN) has seen capacity grow to over 750 BTC ($2.9 million), with the number of payment channels increasing by more than 8,000 to 32,000 in the last 30 days.

Apart from just looking at the impressive core network statistics at 1ml.com, we can see real growth for LN-based applications like the Jack Dorsey-endorsed Tippin.me service.

In a recent tweet, Kevin Rooke revealed that the Lightning-based tipping application had seen 14,000 user sign-ups and 15,000 tips sent since the launch of the project just three months ago.

The new feature to use a browser extension to send tips directly in Twitter recently received a glowing review from Jack Dorsey, the CEO of the social media behemoth.

Growth in Lightning-enabled wallets

Another key part of the LN ecosystem to have seen growth is the user-facing wallet infrastructure, most notably the popular BlueWallet mobile application.

According to a recent blog post, the Bitcoin and LN wallet reported over 12,000 downloads and 16,000 active users for the month of February. Based on previous performance, these figures indicate a +127% increase in users and downloads from the first month of 2019.

The team also said that they saw “people hacking our lndhub solution and running their own nodes” over the last month.

One of the wallet’s co-founders, Nuno Coelho, went on to tell users that if they have some free time, they can set up their own node and connect it to the wallet to “have the best of both worlds in terms of sovereignty and mobile experience”.

Lightning apps (Lapps)

The team also disclosed that the app’s built-in “Lapp Marketplace” has been used by over 40% of its current active users for February. The marketplace now includes 25 Lightning-based apps to try out, including the recently publicised LN pizza and the Lightning-powered live chicken feeder currently being streamed at pollofeed.com.

As a decentralised network, the Lightning Network has the potential to unite a user base from all sides of the crypto debate.

It doesn’t matter if you are a staunch Bitcoin maximalist or a Litecoin/Ethereum supporter – it looks like all sides of the crypto community are starting to experiment and marvel at this payment network, which one day may unlock the ability to stream the smallest amount of value to the other side of the world instantly and for practically no cost at all.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.

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