Couple additions:
- there are a few lightning implementations already out there (see https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd), three I believe, and they have worked on being interoperable. Getting segwit activated was a big blocking (hah!) point towards being able to actually use those, and that happens soon so we may start seeing some more activity in that space very soon now.
- I don't think lightning necessarily means KYC, at least no more so than any other bitcoin->bitcoin transaction. It is basically all the same thing as current bitcoin transaction except things are kept off chain until someone wants to settle (or the channel approaches its timeout). This took me a long time and many videos to grok but it is pretty clever and has me excited about Bitcoin scaling to everyday use again. But ya, though the specter of regulation is always looming there isn't anything in lightning that necessarily makes that worse.
The whole big block / small block thing is absolutely nuts in the amount of trolling that takes place, so totally expect some crazy replies to this.. troll on brothers!