The number of Lightning Network nodes on the Bitcoin blockchain has grown by almost 94% over the year and exceeded 10,000. 1185 BTC worth about $ 69 million are currently blocked on the Lightning Network.
According to publicly available data, the number of nodes in the second layer of the Bitcoin Lightning Network reached 5,335 in April 2020. As of April 2021, their number has almost doubled to 10,348. However, this figure only includes nodes with public connections, and the real number is probably higher when we consider nodes with limited connections.
As fees on the Bitcoin network rise with the price of BTC, scaling technologies such as Lightning are gaining popularity. They offer users a cheaper and faster way to conduct transactions with near-zero fees for bulk payments. If BTC is ever to be used ubiquitously to pay for goods and services, solutions like Lightning will be of paramount importance.
The Lightning Network is now experiencing more activity than ever, and the total number of payment channels on the network now exceeds 45,000. The Lightning Network has 1,185 BTC blocked, worth about $ 69 million.
The growth of network liquidity and routing capabilities are improving as support for the technology by cryptocurrency companies grows. Recently, the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange launched a payment service, connecting to which merchants and stores will be able to receive payments for goods and services in cryptocurrencies. For payments in BTC there is support for the Lightning Network.
In February, P2P platform Paxful said it would add support for the Lightning Network to enable faster, more cost-effective bitcoin transactions. In the same month, fees on the Bitcoin network peaked since January 2018, and industry experts noted that the Lightning Network could be the solution to this problem. But most people can’t use Lightning as it is still not available for the most popular wallets.
