Author: Roy Sheinfeld, Bitcoin Magazine; Translated by: Wuzhu, Golden Finance

There is one fact that will irreversibly affect the future: the Lightning Network is becoming the lingua franca of the Bitcoin economy.

Common language between subnets

We’ve discussed various “last mile” technologies before. They’re like local secondary roads that connect users to the higher throughput Lightning Network and ultimately to the Bitcoin mainnet. They all basically work by bundling users and their transactions into subnetworks.

For example, Ark and Liquid convert incoming Bitcoin into their own mechanisms (VTXO and L-BTC, respectively), which users can then send to each other based on their respective protocols without further on-chain transactions. Alternatively, Fedimint members effectively pool their Bitcoin and trade IOUs between them, with transactions and financial status overseen by a trusted alliance of guardians. With Cashu, people can exchange electronic cash tokens and trust the issuing authority.

Each subnetwork can use its own language. How the nodes in these subnetworks communicate with each other is their own business. Interestingly, these subnetworks communicate with each other over the Lightning Network, even if we are just talking about two different Cashu mints or Fedi interacting with Ark. The Lightning Network is the common language for all the new and thriving subnetworks based on Bitcoin.

Going back to the analogy, it doesn't matter to me what language you speak at home or in the supermarket. You can speak any obscure dialect you want to anyone who can understand you. But if you want to talk to me or pretty much anyone on Telegram or Slack, English is really the only option. No one can change that even if they wanted to, and no one seems to want to. Like lightning.

Lightning is the lingua franca of the emerging subnetworks. It is the language of Bitcoin.

Why Lightning Network is the best language for Bitcoin

A lingua franca doesn’t have to be the best language. It just has to work and be widely accepted. Just as the Bitcoin main chain has certain advantages (e.g. immutability, openness, borderlessness, etc.) that recommend it for certain uses, the Lightning Network is the best choice for a lingua franca between subnetworks for at least three reasons.

Lightning Network is Bitcoin, Bitcoin is a trustless bearer asset

The first and most important reason why Lightning Network is the best lingua franca is that it uses Bitcoin. In simple terms, subnetworks may not trust each other, and they have no reason to do so. But since Bitcoin, as well as Lightning Network, eschew trust, subnetworks can interact without it. Bitcoin is the only viable bearer asset, and Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s language, so Lightning Network is the best lingua franca for subnetworks to interact with each other.

Furthermore, like Bitcoin, the Lightning Network eschews leverage. The entire business model of fractional reserve banks is based on holes in their balance sheets. In contrast, every SAT on the Lightning Network is recorded every moment. The balance sheet showing all positions on the network will always be balanced. No gaps, no overlaps. The Lightning Network is resilient to imbalances caused by hubris, incompetence, and evil, a necessary trait in a trustless environment.

The Lightning Network is inherently transactional and interoperable

Second, the Lightning Network is a transaction protocol designed to facilitate liquidity. For normal payments, there is no mempool, no delay until the next block is mined. Payments take only seconds, if that. And transactions—mobile money—are what the Lightning Network is valuable for. Static currency on the network earns nothing in return. For liquidity to grow on the Lightning Network, it must flow. If a universal language encourages silence, it won’t be widely used. It must facilitate communication, which is exactly what the Lightning Network does.

Additionally, the Lightning Network technology detailed in the bolt specification directory is inherently interoperable. It is designed to support multiple Lightning Network node implementations with different designs, tradeoffs, and programming languages. However, all of these nodes can interact through the common network because they all support the same bolt. Interoperability by design makes it easy for other technologies to add Lightning Network as another interface.

Lightning has critical mass

Finally, a lingua franca needs to have a sizable community of speakers. Try saying “skibidi rizz” in a retirement home, or better yet, in a retirement home in Cambodia. English’s greatest strength may be its ubiquity: more people speak it than any other language on Earth. While only a quarter of the inhabitants of many countries speak English, you can still find someone speaking English next door to nearly every bar and restaurant on Earth.

The Lightning Network has already reached critical mass. It’s already clear how the Cashu subnetwork and the Fedimint subnetwork will communicate with each other: Lightning. That’s how they’re designed, so switching the common language between the networks requires rebuilding large parts of them. Just like English, no matter what language the subnetworks use internally, Lightning is the language they use to talk to each other, and it’s already locked in.

Lightning Network Eternity

Real lightning — the kind in storm clouds — is a notoriously fleeting phenomenon. A flash and then gone is all there is to it. But the Lightning Network — the interface between any number of nodes, subnetworks, and the Bitcoin main chain — won’t go away. The lingua franca tends to stay that way for centuries.

Bitcoin is the best money in the world. Lightning is the lingua franca of the Bitcoin world, and it’s here to stay. For those of us who are already entrenched in Lightning, this is very good news. Lightning being locked in means our first-mover advantage will be very valuable.

But it’s also great news for those who are new to the Lightning Network or are considering getting into it. It removes the uncertainty about which technology to support and invest in. The Lightning Network is only going up, so now is never a bad time to start. Yesterday was better than today, today is better than tomorrow, but tomorrow is good too.

There has never been a better time to get into Lightning Network. Ever.