18 Oct 2021
Adoption of the Lightning Network surging
Lightning Network capacity has roughly tripled year-to-date, from 1,000 to 3,000 BTC.
Over 700 BTC have been added to the Lightning Network’s public capacity since bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador on September 7th. Roughly 340 of those have been added since Twitter announced the adoption of Lightning for payments and tips on the platform on September 23rd. Gradually, then suddenly?Since we published our in-depth Lightning report on October 5th, public network capacity has increased by another 95 BTC and reached a new all-time high of 3,100. In the same period, public nodes and channels have increased by roughly 900 and 2300, respectively.Meanwhile, in El Salvador, the government-backed Chivo wallet has attracted 3 million active users since it launched on September 7th, representing 46% of El Salvador's population. However, it is essential to note that 2.7 million Chivo wallet users do not necessarily equal 2.7 million Lightning users. Nevertheless, on October 16th, just as Bitcoin climbed above $60,000 for the first time since April, El Salvador's president tweeted that the Chivo wallet had received 24,076 remittances totaling just above $3 million. In our Lightning report, we estimate that total remittance payments via the Lightning Network could total $27 billion by 2030.