Bitcoin Lightning Network Is Shutting Down Its Current Version

This decision comes nearly two years after Mash successfully concluded a $6 million seed round in June 2022 to develop its usage-based revenue model for content creators.

All Mash products and services will cease operation on May 17th, 2024, at 9am Eastern Time. Users are advised to withdraw any funds they hold on Mash products as they will become inaccessible after this date. Funds can be transferred to Lightning-enabled wallets such as Cash App, Mutiny Wallet, Kraken Zeus, Breeze, ZBD, Phoenix, and others. The team expressed gratitude for the support received over the years and hinted at a possible return after reimagining their platform.

The Lightning Network serves as a layer-2 solution built atop the Bitcoin blockchain, playing a pivotal role in addressing scalability issues within blockchain systems. Among layer-2 solutions, the Lightning Network stands out due to its close ties to Bitcoin’s ecosystem and its capacity to enhance the chain’s utility.

Originally conceived as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, Bitcoin prioritized direct value transfers without intermediaries. Initially, scalability and transaction throughput were not primary considerations for Bitcoin’s creators. However, as time passed, these limitations became increasingly apparent, giving rise to what became known as the blockchain trilemma—a challenge in balancing decentralization, scalability, and security.

Bitcoin has achieved notable decentralization and is widely regarded as secure. Nonetheless, scalability remains a persistent concern, particularly evident in the time taken for Bitcoin transactions to finalize, ranging from minutes to several hours on the network.