Summary:
The Lightning Network offers significant improvements in transaction speed, cost, scalability, and privacy over traditional Bitcoin transactions.
Details:
Lightning’s key advantage is its ability to enable instant transactions with negligible fees. This allows for everyday spending scenarios, including micropayments and cross-border transfers. By reducing blockchain congestion, Lightning also enhances Bitcoin’s long-term scalability.
Lightning supports programmability and interoperability, making it a useful layer for advanced Bitcoin applications.
Key Features:
- Instant settlement—no need to wait for block confirmations.
- Extremely low fees—ideal for micro and nano payments.
- Greater scalability—offloads transactions from the base chain.
- Improved privacy—fewer details recorded on-chain.
- Smart routing—finds the cheapest and fastest path between nodes.