It’s Official: First Bitcoin Lightning Network Payment Completed
The first real mainnet transaction using the Bitcoin Lightning Network is in the books.
Bitrefill software developer Alex Boxworth says he paid his latest phone bill with no fees, and the transaction went through instantaneously.
Mainnet Lightning Network paying my actual phone bill with actual Mainnet funds on @bitrefill. Speed: Instant. Fee: Zero. Future: Almost Here. pic.twitter.com/futhn502Lp
— Alex Bosworth ☇ (@alexbosworth) December 28, 2017
The Lightning Network is an off-chain scaling solution designed to dramatically improve Bitcoin’s notoriously slow and expensive transactions.
Bitrefill allows you to purchase pre-paid mobile phone plans with Bitcoin and Litecoin in more than 100 countries.
The news should bring some relief for many Bitcoin believers who have watched market share slide to competitors such as Ripple, which currently offers significantly faster and cheaper transactions. It should also relieve cryptocurrency enthusiasts who have been investing in altcoins, only to watch their valuations nosedive each time Bitcoin plummets on news of high fees and slow transaction times. Several indicators point to tremendous promise for cryptocurrencies in 2018.
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Comments 3
Lane C Wagner
Dec 31, 2017YES. Bitcoin will be huge in 2018.
Your perspective is shallow
Dec 31, 2017Hmmm, you really think Bitcoin slid to “competitors” like Ripple? You’re comparing a centralized, premined currency to Bitcoin? There are always ebbs and flows, but the entire sea is clearly rising all the way around the cryptosphere. The whole Ripple thing is somewhat of a fad and while I believe that most smart BTC holders did diversify further when BTC was at $19k, it’s not some sort of exodus of any sort by any means. It’s not because Ripple is faster and cheaper and Bitcoin isn’t “plummeting on news of high fees and slow transaction times”. Keep thinking this way and you’ll be hopping from coin to coin every year, then every month as tech evolves. It’s fine for taking USD gains if you’re a trader.
If you listen to random strangers online, especially in a time when we have so many newcomers on the scene, it is suicidal. It’s great to diversify but don’t be a fool thinking that Ripple is any sort of competitor to Bitcoin. Now that smart holders have diversified, it’s eyes on Bitcoin and advancing the cryptocurrency industry as a whole with second layer solutions. Eventually all cryptos will be connected via a larger system that is instantaneously fast, it’s not an issue. There are plenty of promising alts with different applications, but everybody wishes they could go back in time to mine more Bitcoin. Some of these less valuable coins are essentially cheap counterfeits of the Original Blockchain in a way. If you think an OG holder is going to fork over all his Bitcoins for Ripple (or some of these other penny coins) you have a misunderstanding of the entire history and creation of the market as a whole.
14rf1
Dec 31, 2017Your comment was better than the article…well said.