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If the vast majority of the network usage… is just people zapping each other pennys on a niche, obscure website I don’t know what future that has.
My wife and I pay for around 40-60% of our monthly expenses via lightning or bitcoin.
That number goes up and down depending on how many places offer a way to pay with bitcoin.
There are many others like us, in many other locations too. We're not on X or reddit. Heck, most of us aren't on here, either.
All to say, be aware of the limitations of what you can see from your specific location, sources of information, and social circles.
Quick check of my Zeus Wallet the last two weeks shows many recent purchases of coffee for myself and the missus, a moisturizer for her, some minor groceries...
Is that a "big deal?" No, and I don't even think twice about it ordinarily; it's a normal part of daily life. But just like there's me, and there's you, there are certainly also several fuckloads more using L2 the same way, and we are elevating the network by doing these small actions.
Which is to say... onward 👍
Maybe you guys are… and if you are that’s great. However people like you guys or like me (I use lightning on stacker and when I can) is an incredibly small number of people.
Using lightning to transact is still somehow an incredibly niche thing, it’s a niche within a niche.
Imo there won’t be enough demand for zapping to sustain the network, especially considering that 1-2 lightning channels don’t need to be closed for weeks or months at a time and can just be… refilled.
My experience with non-custodial lightning is so good that a channel can be ‘borrowed’ or opened and kept open for months… you don’t touch on-chain that much. Great for scaling… oddly perverse to demand.
A few very technical people using lightning isn’t enough to sustain the network, at least not at a high enough hashrate without more users.
As good as lightning is, as few as people use it, it makes me question the whole concept of ‘transactional capital’ when there’s so little demand to actually use it.
This is an open source project, developed by the first Bitcoiner on a Windows PC, who at the time was uncertain it would have a true monetary valuation or see any usage at all. It is a wild success and a big deal.