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Saying that the Lighting Network is the most interesting thing in crypto is like saying IPv6 on IPv4 tunneling is the most interesting thing in networking. No

Saying that the Lighting Network is the most interesting thing in crypto is like saying IPv6 on IPv4 tunneling is the most interesting thing in networking. No no no You know what's instead the most interesting thing for building on top of crypto? More people using crypto for various purposes, whether it's for running programs (ETH), private transactions (Monero/zcash), or name lookup (Namecoins).

polyomino 9y ago
People failing to understand the limitations of the blockchain is indeed interesting. However I think more people would be interested in how we will overcome such limitations.
kneel 9y ago
People have been using bitcoin for various purposes for a while now, it's nothing new. Lightning is seeming like a viable options as it grows ever larger, additionally most of the new development in privacy is happening in Bitcoin. Very cool stuff.
- guardiangod 9y ago
  And LN is nothing new- it just allows people to transact ...cheaper and faster. Okay that's cool, but that's not a new goal; That's the original goal of Bitcoin As for adding new functionalities into Bitcoin, the creator of Ethereum originally wanted to build Smart Contract on Bitcoin but was rebuffed by Bitcoin developers. Ditto for Zcash. Bitcoin developers don't have a good track record of incorporating new functionalities into the Bitcoin protocol...
  - agorabinary 9y ago
    You're missing the point of the article. A particular smart contract, or zk-snarks, or a new Bitcoin protocol functionality... these are not application layers, they are a particular application. Lightning is an application layer that enables a whole new set of applications. And this is groundbreaking stuff, you can't expect it to have been released in Bitcoin's original 2009 client.
devereaux 9y ago
You obviously haven't played with IPv6 tunnels in a restrictive environment - like if your ISP doesn't let you host websites. Being able to go to tunnelbroker and get a /48 that you can allocate to all your gizmos and VM at home is magical -- especially when your ISP doesn't want to support IPv6 I gave my weather station its own IPv6 website, with fixed AAAA records, and some dyn dns magic to update tunnelbroker.net whenever my ISP changed my IPv4.

polyomino 9y ago

People failing to understand the limitations of the blockchain is indeed interesting. However I think more people would be interested in how we will overcome such limitations.

kneel 9y ago

People have been using bitcoin for various purposes for a while now, it's nothing new. Lightning is seeming like a viable options as it grows ever larger, additionally most of the new development in privacy is happening in Bitcoin. Very cool stuff.

guardiangod 9y ago
And LN is nothing new- it just allows people to transact ...cheaper and faster. Okay that's cool, but that's not a new goal; That's the original goal of Bitcoin As for adding new functionalities into Bitcoin, the creator of Ethereum originally wanted to build Smart Contract on Bitcoin but was rebuffed by Bitcoin developers. Ditto for Zcash. Bitcoin developers don't have a good track record of incorporating new functionalities into the Bitcoin protocol...
- agorabinary 9y ago
  You're missing the point of the article. A particular smart contract, or zk-snarks, or a new Bitcoin protocol functionality... these are not application layers, they are a particular application. Lightning is an application layer that enables a whole new set of applications. And this is groundbreaking stuff, you can't expect it to have been released in Bitcoin's original 2009 client.

devereaux 9y ago

You obviously haven't played with IPv6 tunnels in a restrictive environment - like if your ISP doesn't let you host websites. Being able to go to tunnelbroker and get a /48 that you can allocate to all your gizmos and VM at home is magical -- especially when your ISP doesn't want to support IPv6 I gave my weather station its own IPv6 website, with fixed AAAA records, and some dyn dns magic to update tunnelbroker.net whenever my ISP changed my IPv4.