Here's my 8 tweet year-in-review thread on the #LightningNetwork's 2020.

1) Public network capacity grew from 854 BTC ($6.2M) on Jan 1 to 1,071 BTC ($24.8M) today.

That's a 25% increase in BTC terms, and a 300% increase in USD terms.

(better volume metrics soon )

2) Public routing nodes grew from 4,903 on Jan 1 to 8,106 today, a 65% increase.

(if we use @Snyke's past work estimating private channels/nodes at ~40% of the network, that puts total node count at 20,265... but to be clear that is just a SWAG)

3) Huge protocol gains:
Multi-Path Payments became the standard
LSATs were introduced ( http://lsat.tech )
Keysend was enabled, leading to @sphinx_chat
PSBT support lowered hot wallet risk
Anchor channels lowered counterparty risk
WUMBO channels enabled!

4) Lightning UX improved by leaps and bounds. @bluewalletio, @bottlepay, @Breez_Tech, @ln_strike, @PhoenixWallet, @sphinx_chat, @walletofsatoshi and @zebedeeio have all built incredibly intuitive mobile UXs for new users, and continue competing and improving at a rapid pace.

5) We welcomed so many new entrants to the network, here's a sampling!
@LNMarkets & @MintGox in March
@getvoltage in June
@NiceHashMining & @getumbrel in July
@BitarooExchange in September
@adamcurry & Podcasting 2.0 in November
@BundleAfrica in December

6) of course our LN OGs only improved, from @bitfinex and @RiverFinancial leading the way for exchanges, to @bitrefill @opennode @CoinGatecom and @fold_app crushing it with merchants, to @RTL_App @thunderhubio @RaspiBlitz @ZeusLN @ln_zap (and more!!) pushing open source forwards

7) I didn't even mention all the stuff @lightning released, from Faraday, to Lightning Terminal, to Lightning Pool, to Autoloop, etc. etc. etc.

The obvious conclusion from all this: 2021 is going to be LIT!

@pierre_rochard and @krakenfx have set the tone already

8) if you're feeling FOMO and don't want to miss out on all the fun, my DMs are open! Reach out at any time, and I'll help onboard you to the #LightningNetwork... and the future!

(also subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date) https://lightninglabs.substack.com/subscribe