Photo: QuoteInspector
Although Bitcoin is currently going through the longest ever bear cycle, its community looks engaged in an interesting experiment called the “lightning torch”. Yes, this experiment is certainly related to Bitcoin’s scalability solution Lightning Network that is currently under development.
The Lightning Network is a second-layer off-chain solution atop the Bitcoin network to ease up the burden of the BTC mainnet for processing millions of transactions. Enthusiasts from the Bitcoin community have engaged in a global relay race throw the increasing amount of BTC.
Using the Twitter platform, people pass on the “torch payment” by adding 10,000 satoshis worth $0.35 (at the press time) to the actual payment made to others. The community terms this as the “LN Trust Chain”. Also, anyone holding the torch has to send it some they trust and who will pass it further. So far, this experiment has garnered huge attention as per a pseudonymous torch ringleader named Hodlonaut. The “Lightning Torch” has attracted nearly 140 people from over 37 countries.
Also, the participants include some of the very notable names from the Bitcoin community like the author of the popular book Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos. Other big names include Lightning Labs engineer Joost Jager and Morgan Creek Digital founder Anthony Pompliano. These prominent personalities are tweeting on it using the “LNtrustchain hashtag. Here’s what Antonopoulos recently tweeted.
Heretical thought of the day:
Playing #LNtrustchain is better than watching the Superbowl.
Ok, I lied. Anything is better than watching the Superbowl for this geek.
— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) February 3, 2019
LN Trust Chain Getting Huge Community Support
Last month in January, Hodlonaut said in a tweet that he would pass 10,000 satoshis to the first person he trusts. While speaking to CoinDesk, he added:
“The reason I started this was just to have some fun with the lightning network and maybe spread more awareness. I thought it would maybe do five or six hops and then die, without many people noticing.”
However, this has ultimately turned out to be a worldwide phenomenon. Thanking all the torch-bearers of the LN Trust Chain, another user @Tikawamoto wrote:
“The #LNTrustChain showed the world: 1. Lightning works and it’s amazing. All of us who’ve used it in a solo context (buying stickers, playing games, etc) already knew it, but this experiment was the first widespread public demonstration of its power.”
Antonopoulos also stated that the Torch provides a way to test and uncover problems relating to the technology. He also added that participating in the LN trust chain is not an easy task. It involves setting up a Lightning Node which is a pretty tricky task. He further explained:
“To be able to ‘play’, your [lightning network] node must be well connected, with enough capacity and well balanced (local vs remote balance). Since a lot of that is not fully automated yet, it poses a challenge for node operators and an opportunity to test their setup. As the amount gets bigger, it is harder and harder to find routes and keep it going.”
Antonopoulos believes that this was the Lightning Torch can help to unearth several bugs in the LN software.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Picks The Lightning Torch
On Tuesday, February 5 Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey turned out to be the latest participant in the Lightning Torch experiment. With Dorsey’s latest participation, the torch payment has now reached 2,860,000 satoshis (worth nearly $100 at the time of press).
Dorsey received an invitation from crypto podcast host Matt Odell to participate in the LN Trust Chain. On Friday, Dorsey tweeted:
Cool example of #BitcoinTwitter experimenting on the Lightning Network.
🔥
⚡️Torch received, now passing along to @starkness! #LNtrustchain https://t.co/YVMAv62fCN— jack (@jack) February 5, 2019
As we can see from his tweet, Dorsey has forwarded this torch to Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark. The point of this entire experiment is to keep the torch passing. Jack Dorsey has been a long time proponent of Bitcoin and believes that it will be the single native currency of the internet.
