John Deaton, a supporter of cryptocurrencies and attorney, has criticized the Lightning Network, saying that the “Spend The Bits” protocol on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is more efficient. For Bitcoin, layer-2 scaling is provided by Lightning.By facilitating off-chain, peer-to-peer transactions, it is intended to increase the efficiency and scalability of Bitcoin transactions.
Deaton disclosed that he is an angel investor and Spend the Bits’ chief legal officer in a message published on October 21 on X (previously Twitter).Spend The Bits, a Bitcoin blockchain substitute for Lightning, was previously hailed by Deaton.The protocol was praised by the pro-XPR lawyer in September, who described it as a more secure way to use Bitcoin than Lightning.
The timing of Deaton’s admission on Saturday coincided with an X post from online cryptocurrency investigator WhaleWire.Concerns were expressed in this tweet on a recent finding in Lightning that pointed to a serious security flaw and forced a developer to leave the project.According to the developer, the Lightning Network’s code contains intentional flaws that might give attackers total control over the network.Significant supporters of Bitfinex, Tether, and BlockStream are also associated with the Lightning Network.The security and reliability of Lightning have come under scrutiny in light of this revelation.
According to 1ML, the Lightning Network has a 5,338 BTC network capacity as of this writing.With the payment protocol experiencing a 15% decrease in capacity over the previous three months, this has raised concerns about the network’s resiliency and long-term survival.