Arcane Research notes growth of the Lightning Network ecosystem

The Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) ecosystem is growing faster than its capacity. Arcane Research analysts have noted this.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network ecosystem is growing!

Our data on Lightning Network payments points to usage growing more than public capacity as well.

Stay tuned for an updated State of Lightning report in early April 👀⚡️

Read more: https://t.co/wmFxwIKVaU pic.twitter.com/WfrRbXHpeG

— Arcane Research (@ArcaneResearch) March 18, 2022

The company noted that from April to September 2021 the LN capacity grew exponentially — during this period the figure rose by 700%. However, growth then slowed to 40% year over year.

The rapid development of the LN ecosystem, which has attracted giants such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, is explained by the legalisation of Bitcoin in El Salvador. Since last September, companies operating in the country are required to accept payments from the Chivo wallets, which are compatible with the Lightning Network.

In February 2022, the authorities of the country restarted Chivo, improving the app’s user interface, fixing bugs and adding enhanced LN support.

According to Glassnode, since the start of 2022 LN capacity has risen by 7.4%, reaching 3551 BTC. The number of nodes over the same period increased by more than 8%, topping 20,000. Not least in this were efforts by companies such as Spiral by Jack Dorsey and Synonym Software by Tether.

Back in February 2022, the analytical platform Chainalysis added support for the Lightning Network in its transaction-monitoring solution.

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