Why capacity can rise while payments stay uneven
Well-capitalised nodes can lock liquidity for routing yield or wallet backends. That lifts capacity even if retail P2P payments are seasonal. Always separate infrastructure build-out from consumer habit formation.
Routing and success rates
Small payments route more easily than large ones. Fee-sensitive payments fail more often during congestion. For a quantitative angle, see our 90-day routing study — logged attempts, not vibes.
Where Lightning wins today
- Instant settlement for merchants with proper POS integration
- Remittance-style flows where on-chain fees dominate
- Power users optimising privacy and speed inside curated wallet stacks
Honest takeaway: Lightning is real infrastructure with real UX edges — and real limitations. Treat anyone selling “instant global domination” with the same skepticism as “BTC dead.”