Gotcha. The only thing I saw there that got close to addressing my curiosity is this:
Lightning is a layer on top of bitcoin that can handle an arbitrarily high transaction throughput over time, while still basing itself on bitcoin’s underlying security. It works by opening multi-signature channels between nodes, so that a user can send coins from one node to another, using a series of interconnecting nodes along the way.
So how does doing this exchange bypass the blockchain "administrative" traffic? Do transactions in Lightning get priority while non-transactional details get lower priority?
She says BTC is the "final settlement layer", which I understand better since she words it like that. So that means that all transactions will be between apps and those apps abstract the actual transactions between accounts? So it's not that end users will be using the blockchain any more than bank customers use the SWIFT network, right? Such transactional exchanges will go through a clearinghouse to settle transactions?
You’re on the right track, although in contrast to traditional finance Bitcoin provides the option for anyone to participate directly (in addition to the option of outsourcing that to a custodial service).
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Gotcha. The only thing I saw there that got close to addressing my curiosity is this:
So how does doing this exchange bypass the blockchain "administrative" traffic? Do transactions in Lightning get priority while non-transactional details get lower priority? She says BTC is the "final settlement layer", which I understand better since she words it like that. So that means that all transactions will be between apps and those apps abstract the actual transactions between accounts? So it's not that end users will be using the blockchain any more than bank customers use the SWIFT network, right? Such transactional exchanges will go through a clearinghouse to settle transactions?
You’re on the right track, although in contrast to traditional finance Bitcoin provides the option for anyone to participate directly (in addition to the option of outsourcing that to a custodial service).
The Lightning Network has progressed a lot in 5 years, but this article is still an excellent intro to the basics: https://www.coincenter.org/education/key-concepts/lightning-...