Historical retrospective · Bitcoin
Lightning moved Bitcoin payment-channel ideas toward practical use
Lightning uses off-chain payment channels that can settle to Bitcoin, aiming to support faster payments without recording each transfer on the base chain.
Its design trades direct on-chain settlement for channel liquidity, routing and operational complexity.
The network made Bitcoin scaling a layered-system discussion rather than a single block-size question.
Layer-two convenience depends on liquidity, wallet reliability and channel management; it does not replace the base layer’s role in settlement.
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