As the Bitcoin blockchain is essentially a global database in which every transaction made must be validated by every participant and then stored for eternity, it is an almost hopeless undertaking to scale this construct in terms of transaction speed. This does not really make the Bitcoin network an alternative to modern payment service providers such as VISA, Mastercard or PayPal. However, this is not what Satsohi Nakamoto had in mind for his invention: Bitcoin was created to offer a secure, free, non-manipulable and uncensorable alternative to the world's existing monetary systems. In an increasingly digitized and globalized world, Bitcoin provides the infrastructure for a globally operating and secure monetary network. In order to achieve this noble goal, two characteristics of the network must be particularly pronounced: security and decentralization.
Bitcoin must be as decentralized and secure as possible in order to be truly free and, in an emergency, be able to withstand attempts at censorship or manipulation by large nation states.
Over time, as interest in Bitcoin has grown, so has the number of transactions to be processed via the network. As each transaction requires some space in a block of the blockchain and these blocks are limited in size, however, not every transaction always manages to become part of the next block directly. In addition, the Bitcoin protocol is programmed in such a way that a new block can only be found every 10 minutes on average. A queue of surplus transactions therefore forms in the so-called mempool, which are processed by the miners according to the principle "the more fees are paid, the sooner the transaction will be included in the next block". This in turn means that the cost of writing a transaction to the blockchain within a reasonable period of time increases enormously as soon as the number of desired transactions exceeds the capacity of the blocks. If you are not prepared to pay high transaction fees, it can take hours or even days for your transaction to be confirmed by the network.

_{[The men (transactions) with the large coins (fees) may add the transaction to the block first].}

In short: Yes.

Basically, there are three ways in which the payment channel can be closed.

1. Collaborative: This means that both parties agree to close the channel. The funds are to be used freely immediately after confirmation of the closure.
2. Unilateral: Either party can also close a Lightning Channel independently without the consent of the other party. However, in order to prevent fraud, this is linked to a time lock during which the other party could raise an objection if necessary. If this does not happen, the funds are free after the time lock expires.
3. As an emergency solution in the event of violations: Lightning transactions can be seen as a kind of list that is always signed and timestamped by both parties. Only the distribution of the coins in the channel varies. As already indicated in point 2, one of the two parties could want to cheat and try to close the channel with an old status in which it holds more BTC than it is actually entitled to. In this case, the other party has the option of sending a so-called "breach remedy" transaction (also known as a "justice transaction") to the network during the time block and thus paying out the entire channel capacity itself. This would therefore also be a direct punishment for the fraudster. The justice transaction is signed by the other party with every channel update and the coins can therefore be paid out directly without a time lock.

No! Of course you don't have to open a channel with every friend, merchant or stranger, even though you only do one transaction with them. To send payments where you do not have a direct payment channel to the recipient, you can also use the channels of other network participants. You can send your payment to the desired destination via several channels (so-called "hops"). So if, for example, Alice wants to send a payment to Satoshi but only has one channel to Bob, she can still do so under certain conditions.

Alice sends the desired amount to Bob. He in turn sends the exact same amount via another channel that he has to Marie, who in turn forwards the same amount via one of her own channels, etc., so that the payment ultimately reaches Satoshi. For forwarding the transaction, the corresponding nodes that are used for routing usually charge a small fee, which is usually only a fraction of a cent. A lighning node is normally configured in such a way that it always looks for the cheapest route to the destination.

The more participants there are in the network, the better, faster and more powerful the LN becomes. More participants mean more channels and therefore more potential routes to get a payment to its destination.

Important: Even nodes that act as nodes on the payment route do not affect your privacy. Nodes on the route cannot recognize who a payment originally comes from and where it ultimately goes. In addition, the routing is also trustless. A payment cannot be stolen by an intermediary node. Either a payment reaches the desired destination or it is canceled.

As a rule, the creators of podcasts and similar formats can only rely on large platforms and the insertion of advertising. However, portals such as Anchor or Spotify demand large portions of the revenue generated or even exercise censorship.
The Lightning Network can remedy this situation by enabling consumers to stream the minutes they listen to to content creators in real time.

The opportunities that LN offers for the gaming sector go hand in hand with money streaming. By implementing Lightning payments in computer games, completely new incentives can be created. Gamers can now play for real money in the form of Bitcoin or Satoshi and receive real rewards for good performance in the game. Examples include Lightnite (a Lightning version of the popular online shooter "Fortnite") and Bitcoin Bounty Hunt.

In addition to sending monetary transactions, the LN allows additional data to be attached to Lightning transactions, which makes it possible to send messages. Even though Lightning messaging services such as Sphinx, Whatsat and Juggernaut are still in their infancy, they and the LN have enormous potential to revolutionize the sending of direct messages in the future.

Messaging via LN applications instead of the familiar WhatsApp, Telegram and other services offers enormous advantages. Firstly, of course, there is the obvious argument of sending money via Messenger. Creating and paying invoices and sending payments directly in the messaging app is no longer a dream of the future but already a reality and as easy as sending a text message.
Here is an example:

When it comes to routing, i.e. the search for suitable routes in the network in order to be able to send payments across multiple channels, there are also one or two problems that need to be solved or improved. One of these is primarily related to the issue of "liquidity". When sending larger amounts, it can happen that the nodes cannot find a suitable route with sufficient liquidity to carry out the transaction. However, one solution to this is to automatically split the large transaction and send it via several routes with lower liquidity.

So-called griefing attacks are a well-known problem in the Lightning network, for which there is no real solution yet - but the first promising proposals, e.g.Circuitbreakerby Jost Jager. An attacker could use special HTLCs (*see excursus), so-called "Hodl Invoices", to paralyze the victim's payment channels and demand payment of a ransom. It only takes 483 of these HTLCs to completely block a channel in one direction. Even a collaborative closure of the channel is no longer possible in this case. The problem with griefing attacks is that they can be maintained by the attacker indefinitely, even if a victim complies with the blackmail and pays the ransom.

Another reason for such an attack could be the blocking of competitors in a dispute over routing fees. By blocking competitors' channels, more transactions have to be routed via the attacker's own payment channel, which would result in higher revenues for the attacker.

The Lightning Network is an impressive construct that has enormous potential beyond low-cost Bitcoin payments. It opens up many new possibilities and use cases that can help to make our world simpler, more decentralized and more secure.

Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the LN is not even 5 years old and is still in its infancy. There are still some problems for which solutions need to be found and certainly not everything is perfect yet. However, many great and very intelligent people around the world are working every day to improve and further develop the network - both at a technical level and in terms of usability. Because in the LN, as in almost every other network, the more participants, the greater the network effect. And the main way to attract more participants is to make it easy and secure to use. However, if you compare how quickly and rapidly the developments in LN have taken place, especially in the last two years, you can look to the future with excitement. It will be interesting to see where the Lightning Network will be in another two to three years. It will definitely be worth keeping an eye on it.

If you would also like to become part of the Lightning Network and get to grips with the functionalities, then take a look at the following two instructional videos on how to set up and operate your own Lightning Node.