⚡️ The Lightning Network is a game-changer for Bitcoin, making transactions faster, cheaper, and more private. The Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s supercharged secret weapon:
🟠 If Bitcoin were to reach $1M by the time it's 20 years old (in 4 years) it would need to appreciate on average ~78% per annum: End of Year 2025: $178K End of Year 2026: $316K End of Year 2027: $563K End of Year 2028: $1M
The Bitcoin genesis block was mined 16 years ago. 🫡 An interesting and less known fact about the Genesis block of Bitcoin is that the 50 BTC reward from this block is effectively unspendable. This is due to how the transaction is encoded in the block; it uses a non-standard scripting language which does not include spending instructions, making the initial 50 BTC locked and inoperable. Satoshi didn't even want to premine the first bitcoin block. Another lesser-known fact about the Bitcoin Genesis block is the hidden message embedded within it by Satoshi Nakamoto. In addition to the well-known text from The Times newspaper headline (“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”), the block contains the value 486604799 in its coinbase parameter. This number, when interpreted as a hexadecimal string (0x1D00FFFF), represents the easiest possible mining difficulty for the Genesis block. One final, lesser-known aspect about the Bitcoin Genesis block is that it wasn't actually broadcast to the network in the conventional sense since there was no network at that time. Satoshi Nakamoto mined this block on a single computer, and it only became part of the blockchain when other nodes joined the network later. This means the Genesis block was essentially a solitary event, unique in that it didn't need validation from other nodes to confirm its existence. This underscores the unique, bootstrapped nature of Bitcoin's initial implementation, where the blockchain started from a single point of origin before growing into a distributed network.
🐝 New store in the #bitcoin #lightningnetwork marketplace selling 🍯 #honey:
👏 Nearly 900 #bitcoin #lightningnetwork nodes on LN+ have earned the *Prime* status, meaning they’ve received 10 or more positive ratings 👍 with a 90%+ approval rate:
Here is our 2024 LN+ yearly review! Our community added to the #Bitcoin #LightningNetwork: ⚡️ 200+ BTC in new channel capacity ⚡️ 6K+ new channels ⚡️ ~1,700 new verified node operators We did this across ~2K swaps, ~1K pool transactions and ~10K comments. Thank you for your work! Other stats: 🛍️ We have 206 lightning market stores 🎓 2K+ people watched our bitcoin academy videos 🔒 200+ nodes watch each other's nodes A full #lightning course and many fun and useful features are planned for 2025! The future is lit!⚡️ image
A look at a valuable metric for measuring the effectiveness of the #Bitcoin #LightningNetwork in routing payments:
⚡️ The value carrying capacity of your existing #LightningNetwork channels doubled since the beginning of the year without you needing to do a single thing. 🙌
I never met anyone who regretted learning about #bitcoin. Do take the time to understand how to use it and keep it safe:
🚀 Exciting new feature on LN+! Group Channel Opens lets LND node operators open up to 5 #lightning channels with a single #bitcoin transaction, saving over 50% on fees and block space. Balanced channels from the start: perfect for receiving, sending and routing payments. Ready to try? Here are the instructions: