WARNING: If you try to use the Lightning Network you are at extremely HIGH RISK of losing funds and is not recommended or safe to do at this time or for the foreseeable future

I was hoping I wouldn't have to make this kind of post about the Lightning Network (LN) but unfortunately due to recent events and a long track record of being "reckless" (being a broken and unsafe network) I feel obligated to make this post to warn unsuspecting users that are being tricked into thinking Lightning Network is safe and usable.

At this stage it has become abundantly clear that LN is not safe to use at this time, and anyone that uses it is at a very high risk of losing funds.

There seems to be this false sense of security that things are just fine and that it's okay to use LN, when it couldn't be further from the truth. We get a lot of trolls coming here spouting that LN is the next best thing since sliced bread, better than Bitcoin itself, and is the future. And maybe one day it could be, but at this time, it's clearly not and people that are here trying to trick you into this false sense of belief are intentionally deceiving you.

Below is a long list of links I just spent a few mins compiling which shows, that LN is over-promised, a long ways away from being in working order, and is unsafe to use.

• October 23, 2019: 4 BTC stolen using Lightning Network https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/dlvokv/how_i_lost_4_btc_on_lightning_network/

• October 21, 2019: Researchers Uncover Bitcoin ‘Attack’ That Could Slow or Stop Lightning Payments https://www.coindesk.com/researchers-uncover-bitcoin-attack-that-could-slow-or-stop-lightning-payments

• September 28, 2019: Andreas Brekken: "I've been asked quite a bit why I took down the largest Lightning Network node, LN.shitcoin.com. Constant anxiety was the deciding factor. > When a channel is created, the receiver of the channel was not required to verify the amount of the funding transaction" https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dae1g0/andreas_brekken_ive_been_asked_quite_a_bit_why_i/

• September 27, 2019: Lightning Network Security Vulnerability Full Disclosure: CVE-2019-12998 / CVE-2019-12999 / CVE-2019-13000 https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-September/002174.html

• September 10, 2019: Lightning Network dev: "We've confirmed instances of the CVE being exploited in the wild. If you’re not on the following versions of either of these implementations then you need to upgrade now to avoid risk of funds loss" https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-September/002148.html

• August 30, 2019: Lightning Network security alert: Security issues have been found in various lightning projects which could cause loss of funds! https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-August/002130.html

• May 29, 2019: "PSA: The Lightning Network is being heavily data mined right now. Opening channels allows anyone to cluster your wallet and associate your keys with your IP address." https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/budmfh/on_twitter_psa_the_lightning_network_is_being/

• April 24, 2019: Forget 18 months: it’s now 30-50 years until Lightning Network is ready https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/bh1gzw/forget_18_months_its_now_3050_years_until/

• March 29, 2019: Analysis Shows Lightning Network Suffers From Trust Issues Exacerbated by Rising Fees https://news.bitcoin.com/analysis-shows-lightning-network-suffers-form-trust-issues-exacerbated-by-rising-fees/

• March 4, 2019: Lightning users must be online to make a payment, funds must be locked to use, is a honey pot, completion rate deminishes with high value payments, and more https://medium.com/starkware/when-lightning-starks-a90819be37ba

• March 17, 2019: TIL that Lightning Network conceptual design and focus to layer 2 scaling for BTC was introduced in February 2013, over 6 years ago (LN whitepaper released February 2015, 4 years ago) https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/b201kd/til_that_lightning_network_conceptual_design_and/

• February 28, 2019: "Out of the 1,500 orders submitted on the first day [using Lightning Network], only around 10 percent were successful" https://breakermag.com/i-ordered-lightning-pizza-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/

• March 1, 2019: Lightning Network has become a complete train wreck. Oh by the way, it's no longer 18 months but YEARS until it's ready for mass-consumption. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aw71q8/lightning_network_has_become_a_complete_train/

• February 28, 2019: Decentralized path routing is still an unsolved problem for Lightning Network (currently "source routing" works at this scale) https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/avt6ow/do_people_agree_with_andreas_antonopoulos_that/

• February 25, 2019: Lightning Network bank-wallet is "kind of centralized but it has to be this way if you want mass-adoption" https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aup68s/lightning_network_bankwallet_is_kind_of/

• February 23, 2019: 5 Things I Learned Getting Rekt on Lightning Network https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/atx8jq/psa_important_video_to_watch_if_you_use_lightning/

• February 22, 2019: Listen to this great talk on the problems and complexities of using HTLC's on the Lightning Network ⚡️, and possible alternatives. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/atmlnp/listen_to_this_great_talk_on_the_problems_and/

• February 20, 2019: The current state of Bitcoin companies & dealing with Lightning Network ⚡Highlights: Hard to implement, takes a ton of man hours, with no return on investment. LN adds zero utility. The only reason some companies support it is for marketing reasons. https://old.reddit.com/r/lightningnetwork/comments/asuoyy/the_current_state_of_bitcoin_companies_dealing/

• February 20, 2019: Current requirements to run BTC/LN: 2 hard drives + zfs mirrors, need to run a BTC full node, LN full node + satellite, Watchtower and use a VPN service. And BTC fees are expensive, slow, unreliable. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aspkj2/current_requirements_to_run_btcln_2_hard_drives/

• January 17, 2019: 18 Months Away? Latest Lightning Network Study Calls System a 'Small Central Clique' https://news.bitcoin.com/18-months-away-latest-lightning-network-study-calls-system-a-small-central-clique/

• March 21, 2018: Lightning Network DDoS Sends 20% of Nodes Down https://www.trustnodes.com/2018/03/21/lightning-network-ddos-sends-20-nodes

• October 10, 2018: Watchtowers (third party services) are introduced as a way to monitor your funds when you can't be online 24/7 so they aren't stolen https://medium.com/@akumaigorodski/watchtower-support-is-coming-to-bitcoin-lightning-wallet-8f969ac206b2

• June 25, 2018: Study finds that the probability of routing $200 on LN between any two nodes is 1% https://diar.co/volume-2-issue-25/

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It should probably go without saying, but to be fully transparent: none of these issues occur on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) because BCH doesn't depend on Lightning to scale, but scales on-chain. So if you want to avoid all of these problems and security issues with Lightning, just use Bitcoin Cash instead. Problem solved.