Part 3 of 10

The Challenges of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network

The Challenges of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network

Bitcoin and the Lightning Network present some unique challenges. For one thing, they're both highly volatile. Bitcoin has been known to see its value jump or plummet by hundreds of dollars in a single day; this makes it difficult to use as an everyday currency because you never know how much money you'll have left over after buying something with it.

The lack of regulation is another issue: there are no laws governing how cryptocurrencies should be used or traded--and since they're not backed by any government entity (like fiat currencies), there's no one who can step in if someone gets ripped off by another user on an exchange platform like Coinbase or Gemini Exchange (which are two of our favorites). Finally, cyber-attacks pose yet another threat: hackers often target exchanges because they hold large amounts of digital currency at any given time; if someone gets hacked like MtGox did back in 2014--and loses millions worth of bitcoins--they won't get those lost funds back!