Bitcoin Lightning Network.
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It was amazing for a while everything worked the price was rising Bitcoin looked unstoppable.
Then in 2017 the bitcoin network was being used so much that it started to slow down taking up to 3 days to send a transaction. You could not "buy your coffee" with Bitcoin. People would have to pay a higher and higher transaction fees to get there transaction processed quicker. People became disillusioned the price dropped. Accusations of spamming the network where levelled at governments and certain other crypto currency leaders. Blockchain is SLOW ! This applies to all Cryptos. So when people say this or that crypto is faster, its never been tried at scale. Different things have been invented like Dash's Master nodes, staking and bigger blocks, and for a while took some of BTC share of the market. This has caused all sorts of arguments - See Crypto Twitter where the arguments have raged.
Fortunately the LIGHTNING NETWORK & THE LIQUID NETWORK are now solving these issues. You CAN buy coffee or a penny chew or send 1 tenth of a penny right down to 1 satoshi virtually instantly! It may not be as secure as using Bitcoin directly, but its fine for Coffee - and you can still send Bitcoin in its original form.
- So if I was buying coffee I'd use Lightning and it would cost virtually nothing and be instantaneous. - If I was sending $1,000,000 to Zimbabwe, I'D use the original blockchain and it would still cost a lot less than a wire transfer and still be way faster ( 1 Hr ). |
Bitcoins Layer 1 is like a gold bar - no good for buying coffee as It takes 30mins to a day clear but when it gets there you know its there.
Also whats known as SETTLED. 
Bitcoins Layer 2
Is almost instantaneous perfect for buying coffee. Here's a very early snapshot of Lightning Network how it looked. 
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Micro Payments via the Lightning network are now possible and the possibilities are endless.
EG
A news website, say THE GUARDIAN could automatically charge you 0.5p for every article you read. Without you having to lift a finger.
OR
NETFLIX could charge you by the 2p per 10mins for watching content.
Most people cant be bothered to sign up to various organisations for a monthly subscription so to funding a one size funds all Lightning channel as a one off - not a problem.
A news website, say THE GUARDIAN could automatically charge you 0.5p for every article you read. Without you having to lift a finger.
OR
NETFLIX could charge you by the 2p per 10mins for watching content.
Most people cant be bothered to sign up to various organisations for a monthly subscription so to funding a one size funds all Lightning channel as a one off - not a problem.
How to Creating a Lightning Wallet
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Getting tipped on your Twitter account.
https://tippin.me/howto |
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Option 2
Pros
What you need. A bitcoin full node : eg mynodebtc or Casa hodl. A software lightning wallet. E.G. Zap wallet or Blue wallet. Most nodes now have a built in Lightning wallet or you can use your App which can be linked to either your own personal (full privacy) node or the wallets generally provide you with a their own node connection (not so private). |
Casa Hodl Bitcoin node
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More!
If you still want to learn more about LN, check these links :- Live on CryptoPurchase Gift Cards or Mobile Refills from more than 1650 businesses in 170 countries. Get eGifts & pay mobile bills quickly, safely, and privately with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies https://www.bitrefill.com/ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/future-bitcoin-what-lightning-could-look/ Messari.io👌 medium.com/@pierre_rochard/easy-lightning-with-node-launcher-zap-488133edfbd How to create a store that accepts Bitcoin Lightning Payments. https://bitcoinshirt.co/how-to-create-store-accept-bitcoin Lightning Labs Wallet Apps https://dev.lightning.community/lapps/ SPHINX sphinx.chat MAKE YOUR DONATION WIDGET. Fill in the form to generate a code snippet to start accepting recurring donations directly to your lightning wallet. https://sphinx.chat/donate Heres deep dive into how lightning actually works
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/understanding-the-lightning-network-part-building-a-bidirectional-payment-channel-1464710791 |
Fun with LightningGambling - https://lightningspin.com/
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Advanced
Im no expert on lightning so heres some links to more knowledgeable sites.
The Sats Are Streaming"We recently launched Lightning Bulb 💡, a list of open research questions and experimental ideas for the Lightning developer community to build on bitcoin. We hope these questions will inspire the community and help ignite new projects and use cases. Here are a few of our favourite ideas:"
The Sats Are Streaming"We recently launched Lightning Bulb 💡, a list of open research questions and experimental ideas for the Lightning developer community to build on bitcoin. We hope these questions will inspire the community and help ignite new projects and use cases. Here are a few of our favourite ideas:"