Lawyer and advocate for cryptocurrencies, John Deaton, has expressed criticism toward the Lightning Network, stating that it is less effective compared to the “Spend The Bits” protocol running on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The Lightning Network serves as a layer-2 scaling solution for Bitcoin, aiming to enhance the scalability and efficiency of Bitcoin transactions by enabling off-chain, peer-to-peer transactions.
In an October 21 post on X (formerly Twitter), Deaton disclosed that he is both an angel investor in Spend the Bits and serves as its chief legal officer.
Previously, Deaton had endorsed Spend The Bits as an alternative to Lightning on the Bitcoin blockchain. In September, he praised this protocol, describing it as a more secure way to utilize Bitcoin compared to Lightning.
Deaton’s disclosure on Saturday coincided with a post from the online crypto investigator WhaleWire. This tweet raised concerns about a recent discovery within the Lightning Network, indicating a significant security vulnerability that led a developer to withdraw from the project. The developer alleged the presence of intentional vulnerabilities in the Lightning Network’s code, which could potentially grant attackers complete control over the network. Notably, some prominent supporters of the Lightning Network are also associated with Tether, Bitfinex, and BlockStream, raising questions about the network’s security and reliability.
As of the time of writing, the Lightning Network has a network capacity of 5,338 BTC, according to 1ML. This has led to doubts about the network’s resilience and long-term sustainability, particularly in light of a 15% reduction in capacity observed over the past three months.
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