> You have to a) pay to open up a channel with each person you wish to use it This simply isn't true. You open one channel and then payments are routed over ch

> You have to a) pay to open up a channel with each person you wish to use it This simply isn't true. You open one channel and then payments are routed over channels to your destination. It's no different to TCP/IP in this way and the reason why that analogy is used a lot in describing the network Having a one channel single destination can be done with Bitcoin alone and the new timelock transactions - the purpose of lightning is automating these transacations and the routing between channels Opening a channel in lightning is no different to having a balance in a wallet or a bank account - you don't notice that it is "locked". Channels can also create other channels using channel factories[0]. This all happens under the hood much in the same way somebody accessing YouTube knows little about routing infrastructure. There really is a lot of FUD about Lightning and they get repeated a lot by people who should know better. There is now a series of simple infographics that explain what Lightning is and how it works so there shouldn't be any more excuses for such simple misinformation being repeated[1][2][3][4][5] Your specific claim about one channel = one receiver is addressed in [5] I think the HN audience should go out and try it themselves and read the paper. It's the most eye-opening tech experience i've had since reading the Bitcoin white paper. If you've been kicking yourself about not getting into Bitcoin early - you have a new opportunity with Lightning now. There are only hundreds of nodes at the moment and only a couple of vendors accepting payments on the testnet and a ton of opportunity to build an entirely new infrastructure around it. [0] https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/67158/what-are-channel-factories-and-how-do-they-work/67187#67187 https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/67158/what-are-c... [1] https://i.imgur.com/L10n4ET.png https://i.imgur.com/L10n4ET.png [2] https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/what-are-the-bitcoin-timelocks.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/what-are... [3] https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightning-part-1-payment-channels-v2.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightnin... [4] https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightning-part-2-shaping-the-network.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightnin... [5] https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightning-part-3-going-offchain.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/bitcoindesigned-prod/media/lightnin...