This is the second part of the two part episode with Billy Garrison (@Billy_BTC). The first part of the interview can be found on Publish0x, as Go Full Crypto makes a blog post for each and every one of our episodes. In this part of the interview, Billy Garrison breaks down the lightning network. Most people in the crypto space are already aware of Bitcoin's scalability issues. That is, long transaction wait times (upwards of 10 minutes sometimes), and low transaction throughput (6 tx/s). This has been pointed to as a major barrier to the widespread global adoption of bitcoin as a payment network. The lightning network was invented to deal with these scalability issues. Billy Garrison breaks it down for Go Full Crypto.

How Does the Lightning Network Work?

The lightning network is considered a "layer 2 protocol" that functions on top of the bitcoin network. It can be thought of as an onion, with the core bitcoin blockchain in the middle. We can also use an analogy to illustrate the relationship between the lightning network and the bitcoin network. Bitcoin is like HTTPS and TCP/ID, it is a protocol that easily allows for the sharing of data, in the case of bitcoin, its financial data. Therefore financial applications can be built on top of the Bitcoin protocol, just like web applications can be built upon HTTPS and TCP/IP. It can therefore be said that the lightning network is an app on top of Bitcoin. It can also be said that the lightning network is the first peripheral financial application on top of bitcoin. The aim for the lightning network is to be just as decentralized as the regular bitcoin network. Due to the fact that the lightning network is only 3 years old, it's probably a little ways off of being mature enough to earn the title of being decentralized.

Who Uses the Lightning Network?

The first time we discussed the lightning network on the Go Full Crypto podcast was in episode 16 with Michael Peterson. Michael is the director of Bitcoin Beach, a not for profit organization aimed at deploying a micro economy based on bitcoin in a small El Salvadorian community called El Zonte. After attempting to teach the population how to use the core bitcoin network, the users were frustrated with long transaction wait times and high fees. When paying for small food items, some of the transaction fees would be more expensive than the goods received in the transaction itself. Michael turned to the lightning network in order to solve this problem. The lightning network greatly simplified the transaction process by allowing the users to transact instantly, and for basically no cost at all. Who uses the lightning network? Among others, El Zonte does.

The Go Full Crypto Vision

We want to help people opt-into the world of cryptocurrency, one dollar at a time. In order to do this, people must need a reason. They need their own "why" behind discarding their government currency for the world currency of the future. Go Full Crypto is putting out content to help people discover the reason why they want to get involved in cryptocurrency.

Download Episode 20 of Go Full Crypto - Billy Garrison - Exploring the Lightning Network

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