Closing a lightning channel is equivalent to cashing in for your physical gold bullion at the custodian central bank or federal reserve.

And we know how that worked out for France.

The fact that this is reliable, and with timelocks it might take a week, that is so freaking amazing.

You don't cash out gold for daily activities, so then you can wait a week and the fact that you don't need to travel the seas to get it is a 100x improvement.