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jcranmer

Is Lightning usable yet? I recall hearing it's been "imminent" since at least 2017...

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You're clearly listening to the wrong people.

It's usable for sure, but that doesn't mean billions of people can (nor want) to use it now. I'm using it just fine.

It's less usable than it's parent blockchain!

That's subjective. It's a lot cheaper and fast to send money.

What's the most I could send without network liquidity issues?

I don't know the answers to this strange question. What's the most you can send to another bank account without compliance issues?

Lightning network is limited to the liquidity offered by channel operators. What is the current situation like?

Situation is great, note that I operate my own channels and I'm not sending millions around every day.

What do you mean by "compliance" issues? If you meant that the sum of money you send cannot trigger someone, somewhere to check to make sure the transaction is legit, and we're assuming a transfer from a "normal" bank to another, then I would guess on the order of $10,000. But companies and organizations routinely transfer millions and billions between normal banks. Yes, the transactions may cause someone or many someones to investigate, but the transfers still succeed.

What does OP mean with "liquidity issues"? Lightning is a routing network, and you can connect directly to your counterparty, circumventing all potential liquidity issues.

> But companies and organizations routinely transfer millions and billions between normal banks

Just like companies have direct lightning channels between each other, they can send billions of they please.

You're being disingenuous. A channel needs to be already funded before a transaction can happen, with an amount at least the size of the transaction. So, to transfer billions, you need billions more to first fund the channel. A quick search shows that most channels currently have less than $100 in them, limiting how much you can send without prior arrangement.

> A quick search shows that most channels currently have less than $100 in them, limiting how much you can send without prior arrangement.

Note that not all channels are public, so you won't find all in searches. I'm only saying that you shouldn't be worried about lightning liquidity if you can directly connect to your counterparty - as you can directly transact with that party without relying on any liquidity from anyone else.

Most LN apps recommend sending no more than $50 USD over the Lightning Network right now. That will increase over time.

For Lightning to work at scale, we need solutions for problems that nobody on earth has solved yet, nor have any idea how to solve.

Sure, it kind of sort of works for small network sizes. It will die a fiery death the second it attempts to become popular with no known way out of the mess.

Yes; I use LN more than standard Bitcoin.

There are many apps already and things are just now getting started: https://www.lapps.co/

The only reason it works at all is that it is small and barely used by anyone at all.

Scaling Lightning is an unsolved problem. It relies on finding solution to problems people have tried to solve for decades with no success.

What problems are you referring to?

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