Author: Simon Liu 2015-08-11 17:17:58
Published on: 2015-08-11T17:17:58+00:00
The Lightning payment hub system may be subject to US money transmitter regulations and AML/KYC requirements. This could force some users to resort to anonymous hubs with strict routing requirements, which would drive up fees due to the reduced number of available channels. While two parties could avoid intermediaries by using on-chain transactions, this may not be feasible if Bitcoin is operating as a settlement network with high fees. There is debate among Bitcoin developers about the viability of the Lightning network. One developer argues that it will demand that everyone who uses it becomes a speculator, as payment hubs and merchants will be at the mercy of Bitcoin's price while their funds are locked up in payment channels. Another developer sees the potential for wallets to park bitcoins onto channels, earning rebalancing fees and enabling faster, cheaper, and more scalable transactions for exchanges, deposits, withdrawals, payments, and trades. Overall, there seem to be both advantages and challenges associated with the Lightning network, which will likely continue to be debated and developed in the Bitcoin community.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T19:03:31.485527+00:00