State of Lightning: What's the Path for Network Adoption in 2019?

Looks complex, right? And believe it or not, this network is getting progressively larger each day according to 1ML. In the past 30 days alone, the number of lightning payment channels has increased by roughly 36 percent, bringing to total to roughly 22,000 channels.

Lightning developers are optimistic about the continued success of the lightning network, expecting growth trends seen in 2018 to continue to rise in 2019.

Looking ahead. According to blockchain analytics site P2SH.info, the amount of bitcoin sent through lightning channels since last June has skyrocketed from less than 25 BTC to 578 BTC. State of the lightning network on bitcoin mainnet.

The main use case of the lightning network as described on the official webpage is "Lighting-fast blockchain payments without worrying about block confirmation times."

According to a world map of the public lightning channels spread out across the globe, most of the servers running on the lightning network are concentrated in North America and Europe.

Since March of last year, the lightning network has seen the number of new payment channels grow from roughly 1,500 channels to over 20,000.

For now, there aren't specific numeric targets on the agenda for lightning developers to reach by the end of 2019, though as mentioned there is a long list of features aimed at expanding network capacity expected for roll-out in months to come.

Standing for "Basis of Lightning Technology," BOLT 1.0 is a common, open-source repository of code that contains all the necessary technical requirements or specifications for users to participate in the lightning network.

Not to be confused with BOLT - a lightning-inspired zcash implementation of the network released August last year by Dr. Ayo Akinyele - BOLT 1.1 is the envisioned upgrade to BOLT 1.0 that will encompass the new development work going into lightning.

AMP: Standing for "Atomic Multipath Payments," AMP according to Osuntokun presents "a massive boost in usability" for the lightning network.