The Lightning Network 2019 Review with Jack Mallers

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“Where lightning is really valuable is, I can send money anywhere in the world, faster and cheaper than anyone else.”
— Jack Mallers

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Boulder, Colorado
Date: Monday, 23rd December
Project: Zap
Role: Founder

The Lightning Network is a layer two solution that allows users to send and receive Bitcoin 'off-chain'. Sending and receiving transactions on Lightning is both fast and cheap, allowing the Bitcoin network to scale while maintaining decentralisation by keeping the basechain block size small.

The technology isn't perfect though. In its current state, the Lightning Network can be complicated and intimidating to newcomers as the user experience has key differences from transacting on the basechain. Lightning is developing at pace, and UX design is abstracting away many of the intricacies of the network.

Lightning as a micropayment mechanism for the mainstream market is just one potential use. Jack Mallers, Founder of the Lightning Network wallet Zap, thinks that Lightning may have a far broader value proposition.

In this interview, I review The Lightning Network in 2019 with Zap founder Jack Mallers. We discuss why Lightning matters, private key management, custodial v non-custodial wallets, and how proprietary trading firms may be the next big use case.

TIMESTAMPS

00:05:15: Introductions
00:05:46: Jack’s accident
00:09:42: Andreas’ visit to the ICU
00:12:38: Bitcoin community reaction to the accident
00:14:45: Jack’s continuing symptoms
00:23:15: Last year for Lightning
00:24:25: Peter’s experience with Lightning in El Salvador
00:29:20: Challenging Lightning
00:36:38: Key management in the third world
00:44:03: Why Lightning is valuable
00:51:06: Jack’s thought process
00:54:20: Liquidity for institutions
01:00:28: Suitability of Lightning for consumers
01:05:15: Final comments

 

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PodcastPeter McCormack