<blockquote>
<p>I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand what Bitcoin Lightning is. It appears as if the main website for it is this: <a href="https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have never seen this website before. It is certainly not the official website of the Lightning Network; the Lightning Network does not have an official website.</p>
<p>The Lightning Network is a decentralized network like Bitcoin. In the same way that Bitcoin does not have an official website (bitcoin.org is not the official website, there's no official anything in Bitcoin), the Lightning Network does not either. Most information with the Lightning Network is found on Github and various product pages for specific software.</p>
<p>Some other Lightning Network websites:</p>
<ul>
<li>LND software: <a href="https://lightning.engineering/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://lightning.engineering/</a>, <a href="https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd</a></li>
<li>c-lightning software: <a href="https://blockstream.com/lightning/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://blockstream.com/lightning/</a>, <a href="https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning</a></li>
<li>Eclar software: <a href="https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>The Lightning Network is most certainly not dead and is, in fact, used by many people and services. It's just a bit hard to find information about it because the people who use Lightning currently are more power users of Bitcoin.</p>
<p>Additionally the Lightning Network is developed by a completely separate group of developers of those working on Bitcoin Core. It is unnecessary for Bitcoin Core to include the Lightning Network and those developers have no effect on the Lightning Network's success or failure.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T21:15:59.943Z
2021-01-23T21:15:59.943Z
Ava Chow
<p>I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand what Bitcoin Lightning is. It appears as if the main website for it is this: <a href="https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/</a></p>
<p>However, the site feels extremely &quot;commercial&quot; and sketchy, full of typos and dubious claims/language.</p>
<p>The only other site I can find is <a href="https://lightning.network/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://lightning.network/</a> , which has a way more &quot;community-y&quot; domain name, but almost goes to the other extreme in that it's entirely devoid of anything useful. Extremely barebones and uninviting. Empty.</p>
<p>I frankly did not get this feeling about the Lightning Network until today. I've heard about it for years, but not in a long time. Is it dead/failed at this point? Even after reading the entire introduction, I just have no idea how I would actually <em>use</em> it.</p>
<p>To me, this seems like vaporware. Just like I could not figure out how to actually use Ethereum to actually do anything, or even download a single sensible client.</p>
<p>What is the problem with &quot;Lightning&quot;, really? Do the main Bitcoin developers/controllers have different ideas for the future of Bitcoin? I feel like I have to pull every bit of information out from people, and as if they expect me to automatically understand what to do.</p>
<p>Once again, I have to ask: Am I missing something? Is this promising-sounding thing a... thing?</p>

<lightning-network>
Is there a reason that Bitcoin Core won't add built-in support for Lightning Network, is it dead, and what is the real website?
Zailan
# Is there a reason that Bitcoin Core won't add built-in support for Lightning Network, is it dead, and what is the real website?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-23)

I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand what Bitcoin Lightning is. It appears as if the main website for it is this: <https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/>

However, the site feels extremely "commercial" and sketchy, full of typos and dubious claims/language.

The only other site I can find is <https://lightning.network/> , which has a way more "community-y" domain name, but almost goes to the other extreme in that it's entirely devoid of anything useful. Extremely barebones and uninviting. Empty.

I frankly did not get this feeling about the Lightning Network until today. I've heard about it for years, but not in a long time. Is it dead/failed at this point? Even after reading the entire introduction, I just have no idea how I would actually *use* it.

To me, this seems like vaporware. Just like I could not figure out how to actually use Ethereum to actually do anything, or even download a single sensible client.

What is the problem with "Lightning", really? Do the main Bitcoin developers/controllers have different ideas for the future of Bitcoin? I feel like I have to pull every bit of information out from people, and as if they expect me to automatically understand what to do.

Once again, I have to ask: Am I missing something? Is this promising-sounding thing a... thing?

**Tags:** lightning-network


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-01-23. Score: 2

> I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand what Bitcoin Lightning is. It appears as if the main website for it is this: <https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/>

I have never seen this website before. It is certainly not the official website of the Lightning Network; the Lightning Network does not have an official website.

The Lightning Network is a decentralized network like Bitcoin. In the same way that Bitcoin does not have an official website (bitcoin.org is not the official website, there's no official anything in Bitcoin), the Lightning Network does not either. Most information with the Lightning Network is found on Github and various product pages for specific software.

Some other Lightning Network websites:

* LND software: <https://lightning.engineering/>, <https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd>
* c-lightning software: <https://blockstream.com/lightning/>, <https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning>
* Eclar software: <https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair>

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The Lightning Network is most certainly not dead and is, in fact, used by many people and services. It's just a bit hard to find information about it because the people who use Lightning currently are more power users of Bitcoin.

Additionally the Lightning Network is developed by a completely separate group of developers of those working on Bitcoin Core. It is unnecessary for Bitcoin Core to include the Lightning Network and those developers have no effect on the Lightning Network's success or failure.


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