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The article does mention it. > We’re interested in what’s happening with Lightning and other proposals to enable faster payments. Please be careful about prom

The article does mention it. > We’re interested in what’s happening with Lightning and other proposals to enable faster payments. Please be careful about promoting LN. It's great tech, yes. > this stuff really works! * yes, but please don't actually use it with money yet. [1] [1] https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning#project-status https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning#project-status

nvk 9y ago
I think they are being over cautious (other implementations are not as concern), but yes still in testing. There are over 100 nodes, doing a bunch of transactions no money lost.
- ActsJuvenile 9y ago
  100 nodes for a network worth hundreds of Billions of dollars: that's not over cautious, that's under cautious.
- IncRnd 9y ago
  Has there been a threat model performed by a security person (not a developer)? Functional testing only goes so far and stops at the assumption that the code and design are correct.
blhack 9y ago
Plenty of people (myself included) have used lightning on mainnet successfully. People know the risks. It's just fun technology to play with.
- duiker101 9y ago
  I actually don't know the risks. Have a short version?
  - richardwhiuk 9y ago
    You lose all the money you invested, and any money you had in progress, and nothing is worth anything and you have wasted a bunch of time.
topranks 9y ago
I have major doubts about how it will work in reality. The routing of transactions just won't work in a fully peer-to-peer network. Inevitably large "Tier 1" hubs, interconnected together, will surely be needed. Djikstra or Bellman-Ford type algorithms won't scale to where they need to for anything else, likewise users won't maintain enough funds in channels to make potential routes usable.
- simias 9y ago
  I reached the same conclusion after looking into the matter for a while. I've mentioned it several times on HN and elsewhere and have yet to find anybody offering a rebuttal. Worse, there are very little simulations being done on how it's going to work in practice (admittedly that was about 6 months ago, but the decision to implement segwit/lightning had already been taken at that point anyway). We're talking about a $100+ billion market cap cryptocurrency and nobody knows how it's going to work. It's hype, speculation and memes all the way down. The power of greed.

nvk 9y ago

I think they are being over cautious (other implementations are not as concern), but yes still in testing. There are over 100 nodes, doing a bunch of transactions no money lost.

ActsJuvenile 9y ago
100 nodes for a network worth hundreds of Billions of dollars: that's not over cautious, that's under cautious.
IncRnd 9y ago
Has there been a threat model performed by a security person (not a developer)? Functional testing only goes so far and stops at the assumption that the code and design are correct.

blhack 9y ago

Plenty of people (myself included) have used lightning on mainnet successfully. People know the risks. It's just fun technology to play with.

duiker101 9y ago
I actually don't know the risks. Have a short version?
- richardwhiuk 9y ago
  You lose all the money you invested, and any money you had in progress, and nothing is worth anything and you have wasted a bunch of time.

topranks 9y ago

I have major doubts about how it will work in reality. The routing of transactions just won't work in a fully peer-to-peer network. Inevitably large "Tier 1" hubs, interconnected together, will surely be needed. Djikstra or Bellman-Ford type algorithms won't scale to where they need to for anything else, likewise users won't maintain enough funds in channels to make potential routes usable.

simias 9y ago
I reached the same conclusion after looking into the matter for a while. I've mentioned it several times on HN and elsewhere and have yet to find anybody offering a rebuttal. Worse, there are very little simulations being done on how it's going to work in practice (admittedly that was about 6 months ago, but the decision to implement segwit/lightning had already been taken at that point anyway). We're talking about a $100+ billion market cap cryptocurrency and nobody knows how it's going to work. It's hype, speculation and memes all the way down. The power of greed.