Check out the main differences between Bitcoin on-chain and Lightning layers, including details about their fees, processing time, and security.
Most people know about Bitcoin, but they don’t know that there are several ways to transact, send and receive money using the Bitcoin network.
In this article, we will help you understand the differences between on-chain Bitcoin transactions and transactions on the Lightning Network, the fastest and cheapest network for sending Bitcoin.
Let’s go!?

Table of Contents

  • Understanding Bitcoin On-Chain
  • What is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
  • Using Bitcoin On-Chain in practice
  • Using the Lightning Network in practice
  • Conclusion
I understand that these articles want to be as simple is possible for newbies, but we should not forget that are also hidden ads for specific products and services.
The title is misleading, making the reader to think that will explain how bitcoin can be used onchain or over LN. In fact is just a guide for Azteco vouchers, saying almost nothing about how LN works.
We should make a very clear distinction between technical explanation and paid ads articles. If a nocoiner reader will read this article will think that the whole LN is based only on Azteco vouchers.
Nothing wrong with Azteco (is a good way to acquire sats) or any paid ad, but do not try to mislead readers.
I would rename this article: "How to acquire sats over LN using Azteco vouchers"
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Bitcoin Layer 1 is like Fedwire. Fedwire is an electronic funds transfer system managed by the Federal Reserve, used to settle large-value transactions between financial institutions in the U.S., such as banks. Unlike Fedwire, which is only available to banks, Bitcoin is available to everyone. Anyone can be their own bank and settle large-value transactions. Thus, Layer 1 will be used for large-value settlements because it offers immense security and decentralization. Meanwhile, layers 2, 3, and 4 will be developed for micro-payments. For example, the Bitcoin Lightning Network is currently very popular worldwide. The Bitcoin Lightning Network can perform hundreds of millions of transactions per second. In San Salvador, where Bitcoin is the official currency, it is widely used for everyday payments. Here you can see what a payment with Bitcoin Lightning looks like in McDonald's restaurants in Salvador.
Payments with Bitcoin Lightning are instant and almost fee-free. There is a website, btcmap.org, where you can see all the locations worldwide—hotels, restaurants, gyms, etc.—that accept Bitcoin Lightning and on-chain payments. On the site spend-sats.com, you can also find some online merchants that accept Lightning payments.
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.