The incredible @Rsync25 posted about NLightning when it first got started (#479243), but a lot of work has been done since then and Nickolas Goline's recent talk at bitcoin++ Berlin (time: 55:16) was a nice reminder to check the project out.

Unlike onchain Bitcoin, there is not a single reference implementation for Lightning. There are three main implementations (each sponsored by a different company) that all see a fair amount of usage:

Each of these implementations uses a different language and has different strengths, but they all follow the BOLTS (a set of specifications describing Lightning).

It's interesting to note that Lightning has developed a diversity of clients because there is less need for them to independently come to consensus with each other (they can all rely on Bitcoin's consensus to do this for them).

Since 2024, Nickolas Goline has been working on a new implementation of Lightning written in C#, which is a Microsoft-developed language that is mostly used by enterprise projects. Most of Goline's talk at bitcoin++ concerned C# and .Net (which Goline describes as an open-source internet native framework).

Goline came across very confident and perhaps even a little brash. He seems to have a pretty impressive background and he made a compelling case for why a C# implementation of Lightning will be beneficial to the ecosystem. The most interesting benefits are that many banks use C# in their stacks and that Microsoft often puts developer time and support behind projects that use C#.

If you want to learn a little more about it, check out Goline's [talk at bitcoin++]((https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1gqxvrDVQDexB) (begins at 55:16).