Gm,
Binance just launched a lightning node
https://amboss.space/node/03a1f3afd646d77bdaf545cceaf079bab6057eae52c6319b63b5803d0989d6a72f
Discussion
How timely of them .
bUt lIgHtnIng is CENTraLizeD!
It is tho.
I dunno about that, compared to the base chain yes, but we still have 17k ln nodes, your own node can P2P connect to any other node without going thru centralized peers (acinq/WoS etc)
Even if most of the liquidity is in a handful of nodes, which exchanges use to transfer between each other, doesn't actually force regular ln nodes to use them to access the network
My two sats in the subject
I like this take. I'm still learning the technical details of how lightning works, but aesthetically it appears to be inherently centralizing, though yoh seem to be suggesting that even with loads of routes converging on the same nodes, there's still no way to influence the routing itself, and over time it should decentralize. Does that sound right?
I guess it could be considered a larger issue that custodial uses are going parabolic relative to non custodial.
There are centralizing incentives, ie you can easily access the whole network by connecting to one centralized peer instead of multiple nodes, which is also cheaper for the base chain fees.
But you and I can easily open a channel between ourselves and other nodes on the network have no impact on our ability to transact
how?
Majority of liquidity and channels are concentrated in the top 20 nodes, and those 20 nodes are hosted with 3 hosting providers.
There is some truth to it, but ultimately they could all collapse and the network still runs, because of the plebs
Similar story with mining
Well the point of lightning is not for someone with 0.1 BTC to be able to use 100 BTC of liquidity, It is that they can be connected through channels that allow them to interact with faster settlement. In order to be a central node you need to be interconnected to tons of other nodes, so you almost cannot be entirely centralized on lightning even if you wanted to be.
It's like it simultaneously incentives centralization and meshing my brain hurts
How do you know it's theirs
Who else casually opens 10 BTC channels with other exchanges
Great to see! That's a huge plus for layer 2 adoption.
Yo!
👀
GM 🫂
Lfg