MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor doesn’t like to be called. He was responding to a survey by Eric Wall, a crypto researcher who suggested that he had not used the Bitcoin (BTC) Layer 2 Lightning Network more than three times, through his own Twitter survey.
Sailor answered the survey with a resounding “yes” and launched a meme contest with a giveaway of 1,000,000 Satoshi or 0.01 BTC worth about $200 for the most popular meme. While distributing Satoshi to the winners, Sailor literally uses the Lightning Network three times.
Sailor first tweeted about the Lightning Network in May 2021 and has since become a supporter of a Layer 2 payment solution based on Bitcoin as well as LiFi or Lightning Finance. Wall, a former chief investment officer at Arcane Research, has contacted Saylor several times, and his initial optimism about the Lightning Network in 2018 turned to criticism.
Other notable authors, including Udi Wertheimer and Lilly, head of business development at Foundation Devices, have regularly hit the LN. Lilly recently called the network a “failure,” and Woody said, “Nobody uses it.”
The vote, in addition to Wall’s recent comment, focuses on interest in a larger cause. Is the Lightning Network a simple solution to Bitcoin’s scalability problem, one that even the biggest names in the Bitcoin space are struggling to exploit? Or has the Lightning Network failed after eight years of development?
Related: Busking on Bitcoin: How Lightning Network Beats Ethereum in Tips
Wall shared a series of videos explaining how difficult it is to transfer money via LN from old bitcoin wallets to a new phone. He also predicted that the capacity of bitcoins on LN will not exceed 6,000 bitcoins until 2023. The capacity of the bitcoin network increased to 4,000 bitcoins in June and 5,000 bitcoins in October. Two months before the end of the year, Wall tweeted that she was “going to bite my nails.”
Perhaps the big companies entering the market will promote the use of LN and improve the mood. Sailor is doubling down on its Bitcoin strategy once again as MicroStrategy hires Lightning developers. In addition, NYDIG, the leading Bitcoin company, announced in its Q3 report that “it’s time for Lightning”, and announced its intention to contribute to LN.
For smaller companies that focus on bitcoin, deals and announcements are made on a weekly basis. Strike recently led a successful $80 million funding round, while Galoy, the team behind the El Salvador-based Bitcoin Beach wallet, pumped dollars into LN – a boon for emerging markets. In Gibraltar, a highly complex financial market, the use of the Lightning Network is booming.
Finally, in a recent panel moderated by Cointelegraph in France, prominent Lightning developers including “Dr. Bitcoin,” Christian Decker, as well as data scientist René Piccard, considered whether transactions in LN could fail in 2022.
The prevailing opinion of the group on this day was that LN was still under development. This is not a great success, because it is still early days. According to Nicholas Berti, CEO of Galoy, the group behind Bitcoin adoption, Lightning Summit in El Salvador, “Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador was a watershed moment for Lightning.” A month ago, El Salvador’s Bitcoin law turned one year old.
Meanwhile, hundreds of memes have appeared in response to Sailor’s tweet.
Cointelegraph contacted Eric Wall, who declined to comment. Cointelegraph will update the article if Saylor, Wertheimer or Lilly share the comments.
