Why Lightning?

• Secure: The integrity of the L1
• Near instant settlement
• Highly scalable

How it works

As the name suggests, Cardano Lightning is to be a port of Bitcoin Lightning (opens in a new tab) to Cardano.

The network is made up of bidirectional payment channels. A payment channel is some means by which one party can make a payment, and the other party can receive it. Either party can close the channel at any time at no risk to the other party. In a bidirectional payment channel, payment can be made in both directions.

The magic really happens in hopping from one payment channel to another. For example, if Bob has a payment channel with both Alice and Charlie, then Alice can pay Charlie by effectively paying Bob and Bob paying Charlie.

See our roadmap!