The Lightning Network (LN) is a rapidly growing second-layer payment protocol that works on top of Bitcoin to provide near-instantaneous transactions between two parties. With this practical guide, authors Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Rene Pickhardt explain how this advancement will enable the next level of scale for Bitcoin, increasing speed and privacy while reducing fees.

Ideal for developers, systems architects, investors, and entrepreneurs looking to gain a better understanding of LN, this book demonstrates why experts consider LN a critical solution to Bitcoin's scalability problem. You'll learn how LN has the potential to support far more transactions than today's financial networks, ushering in an era of global microtransactions at subsecond resolution.

This book examines:

• The challenges of scaling blockchain technology and why the Lightning Network was invented
• The Basis of Lightning Technology (BOLT) specifications that define the LN protocol and its implementation details
• The five layers of the Lightning Network Protocol Suite
• LN basics, including wallets, nodes, and how to operate one
• Lightning payment channels, onion routing, and gossip protocol
• Finding paths across payment channels to transport Bitcoin off-chain from sender to recipient
• The future of the Lightning Network