Lightning Network does not solve #Bitcoin scalability

Those who argue that the emergence of Ordinals drives the use of Lightning and that this is positive for Bitcoin are wrong. The emergence of NFT in the network only benefits the miners because the increased activity and consequent congestion increases fees.

When competition for block space increases as it did in May, even a large exchange like Binance may need to suspend BTC withdrawals, because the cost of network fees becomes a money-loser.

If we look at the figures on the usage of this network in the last month, after two weeks of congestion, we observe a decrease in liquidity by almost 5% (at least 230 BTC less capacity) and in the number of channels by almost 2% (1,180 channels), according to Amboss Space https://amboss.space

In fact, the main monitors of the Lightning network did not express increases in usage during either congestion.

Why not use the Lightning network during a congestion such as those we have experienced with the Ordinals boom, if it is cheaper and faster than using the main network?

Because there is a barrier to entry due to the difficulty of opening payment channels.

Whoever wishes to make a payment needs his counterparty to be connected to the network, otherwise he has to hand over the trust of that operation to a third party that injects liquidity into a mediating channel.

The main services of the Lightning network are custodian services and perform this task for users, in exchange for a fee. The most common procedure used by these services is payment routing.

A company, which manages one or several nodes, offers a way to connect someone who sends BTC to someone who receives them through a channel funded by them.

The transaction becomes less private, because the operator might know the origin and destination of the funds involved.