The number of Lightning Network Bitcoin nodes has increased 160% over the last 12 months, and the number of channels has increased 170% since January 2021.
The number of nodes for Bitcoin’s leading layer-two solution, the Lightning Network (LN), has risen to unseen levels post a surge of adoption.
According to on-chain analytics provider Glassnode’s Monday “Week On-chain” account, the number of Lightning Network nodes rose by 160% during September to touch a record high of 15,600. Towards the end of August, only 6,000 LN nodes were live.
About The Channels Of Bitcoin
The number of channels, or connections between various nodes, on the LN has also hit a high of 73,000, indicating an average of 4.6 channels per node, the report added. Bitcoin Visuals is presently reporting an average of 9.3 channels per node as of Sunday.
The maximum capacity of the Lightning Network has seen tremendous growth this year according to Glassnode. The metric indicates the total amount of Bitcoin (BTC) that can be wired using the LN.
The network’s current capacity is at an all-time high of 2,904 BTC ($123 million at current prices). The milestone marks the growth in capacity by 170% since January, with approximately 22% or 514 BTC having been added to the network in September alone.
The standard channel capacity or amount of BTC sent per channel is at present 0.04 BTC (around $1,670), demonstrating another all-time high for the network. This is an increase of 43% from the average channel size of 0.028 BTC all through 2019 and 2020.
The Lightning Network has of late been in the headlines as a result of the popular social media network Twitter integrating LN for tipping in addition to the network’s national roll-out across El Salvador in the midst of the country’s digital asset embrace.
The idea for Lightning Network was put forward by two researchers, Thaddeus Dryja and Joseph Poon, in 2015 as a way to take Bitcoin transactions off-chain to amplify throughput and reduce costs.
