Lightning Routing Nodes Are Setting All-Time Records
194 sats \ 10 comments \ @kr 30 Jun 2022 bitcoin
This week I’ve noticed a surge of announcements and posts from Lightning routing nodes hitting new all-time records.
I suspect this is a broad trend, and that it indicates an all-time record in Lightning usage too, but I can’t be sure.
Either way, I find it amazing that we’re even having a discussion about all-time high Lightning usage when interest in Bitcoin as an asset is as low as it’s ever been in the last couple years.
Below are a few anecdotes I’ve seen online lately…
  • LNMarkets routed 4+ BTC on Friday, crushing their previous record.
  • Kollider routed 36+ BTC this month on their node with only 8 BTC of public capacity.
  • LQWD has routed 72+ BTC since November, and they’ve routed 20 of that BTC in the last 3 weeks alone.
  • Steven Ellis earned over 375,000 sats in routing fees on one day last week, smashing his previous record by over 2x.
Any other big routing announcements I’ve missed?
What is your theory on the root cause of these Lightning routing records?
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80 sats \ 1 reply \ @spookydub 30 Jun 2022
If people are using fiat as unit of account, that would translate to higher amounts of BTC moving for the markets I'd imagine?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 30 Jun 2022
Good point, depends on how many people use fiat as a unit of account vs. sats, but could def be a contributor.
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74 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 30 Jun 2022
For whatever it's worth, my modest little tor only node had a terrible June. Routing was way down. I guess it's a different story for the big guys.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @1sats 1 Jul 2022 freebie
Tor was/is under DDos attack. This may shift ln traffic from tor to cleaner.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr OP 30 Jun 2022
Interesting, did you make any changes or notice any particular peers were seeing reduced sat flow?
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69 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 30 Jun 2022
I just did a few loop outs to open a large (for me) channel. I also use umbrel and did the dreaded .05 upgrade, but the issues I encountered were minor compared to others I read about. Peers seemed unaffected, but most of them are larger players than me. Also, I want to be accurate. My node performed as usual for the first half of the month, then really slowed down in tandem with the btc price drop. I'm sure no real conclusions can be drawn from my single observation.
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69 sats \ 1 reply \ @2Fast2BCn 30 Jun 2022 freebie
My announcement ;-) #38640
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 30 Jun 2022
🔥
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @cozy 1 Jul 2022
Same, had a record June as well. Maybe also people are trying to catch the knife on, not just those new LN focused exchanges, but also on all the major exchanges that also have lightning available now (Kraken recently, BitFinex for a bit longer from my understanding).
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthMaximaist 1 Jul 2022 freebie
The adoption of lightning is greatly accelerating