Bitcoin: World's first transaction conducted on Lightning Network

For the first time, a Bitcoin transaction has been executed via the Lightning Network. For example, the technology made possible by SegWit has been used to pay for a TorGuard VPN router. The service provider TorGuard had already announced some time ago to accept payments via the Lightning Network.

The Lightning Network is considered - at least in part of the Bitcoin community - to be a promise that allows for quick and cheaper transactions, providing a suitable solution to the scaling problem that has been on the rise for years. Critics, on the other hand, criticize the tendency towards centralization, which includes the technological gimmick of the Lightning Network . This removes Bitcoin too much from its basic idea of ​​a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system.

As the opinions on the Lightning Network diverge, its adaptation continues to advance. TorGuard, the provider of anonymous VPN services, is one of the first companies to openly accept payments through the Mainnet Lightning Network. This announced the company some time ago via Twitter . Accordingly, it should now be possible for all Bitcoin users to make transactions via the Lightning Network. The transaction costs, which result from it, tend to zero, also the transaction duration is shortened considerably.

Apparently this possibility has already been used. According to their own data, a Reddit user has used the Lightning Network to purchase a TorGuard AR300M VPN router. He saw the offer on Twitter and immediately contacted TorGuard to make the transaction. The entire process was fast, easy and above all immediate and free of charge expired. This dispels doubts that TorGuard had previously registered itself. In another TorGuard tweet, it was said that one could not guarantee the Lightning Network function but would compensate for possible losses.

The Lightning Network can be thought of as a peer-to-peer application that is "put on" a blockchain to simplify transactions. The trick is that payments are made through many separate micropayment channels that make it possible to make bookings almost at the blockchain. Instead, two users can make as many transactions as they like without informing all the participants in the block chain about the cash flow. Only the final amount of their transaction will be noted afterwards in the blockchain transparent for all. Smart contracts, fixed deadlines and time frames create mutual trust as well as collective trust in the technology.

So far, the Lightning Network has only been used in various testnets. For example, in November the Lightning Network was used to perform so-called atomic swaps, ie transactions between different blockchains, between the Bitcoin and the Litecoin testnet. At the time, this test was considered a test run for the functionality of the Lightning Network.