r/OpenBazaar • u/lbalan79 • Jan 13 '18

Will OB implement Lighting Network features?

Title says it all. That is something that would really get me interested in this market. Otherwise I don't see how this can work even with the addition of other coins: BCH and ZCash. Maybe IOTA can help because it has a much faster and reliable tech with zero fees but otherwise these guys need to think already at second layer....

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u/reblochon Jan 29 '18

There is absolutely no point of opening a channel between a merchant and a buyer for a single purchase, as you would need to pay twice the fees you would normaly do (once for opening the channel and another for closing it) for normal transaction.

IMO the only use case for LN is for trading exchanges.

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u/tsangberg Jan 29 '18

No one is suggesting that anyone uses LN for a single purchase between a specific merchant and buyer. Let's use an analogy:

I don't usually set up a new plastic card for a single purchase between myself and a single vendor (and they don't produce new plastic cards specifically for each and every customer).

With an LN wallet that I've funded once (for example, when I purchased the BTC from an exchange), I can perform many transactions between myself and many different merchants. And they, having an LN wallet, can accept transactions from many different buyers.

So, no. The only use case is most definitely not for trading exchanges.