Nodes on the Bitcoin Lightning Network have risen above 10,000 for the first time according to data site 1ML.
The Lightning Network is the flagship cryptocurrency’s second-layer scaling solution, enabling faster and cheaper transactions than the Bitcoin network, hence it’s growing reputation as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem – the limitations of the original network’s transaction processing capability.
Nodes are what gives users access to the Network – they both monitor the underlying Bitcoin blockchain and interact with other nodes so transactions can be processed. The original Bitcoin platform’s network of nodes is capable of around only seven transactions per second, while the Lightning Network promises to be able to process millions of transactions per second.
Faster Payments
In the last 30 days the number of Lightning nodes increased by 3.1% to hit 10,000. The greater the number on nodes on the network, the more efficiently transactions can be sent over it.
The data from 1ML indicates that not all is growth on the network, however. The number of channels fell by 1%, making it harder for payments to go through, while network capacity – the amount of reserve funds available for processing payments – fell by 2% to 829 BTC ($6.9 million), likely a result of the recent severe losses on cryptocurrency markets.
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