Lightning network: Bitcoin's savior or worst nightmare?

By now you’ve probably heard of Bitcoin's continued problems with scalability and micropayments. With long transaction times and high fees being main obstacles, the most popular cryptocurrency still will never reach mass adoption if not solved permanently.

But solutions are coming, most notable the Lightning Network, which allows for instant payments and micro-payments that could change the landscape for Bitcoin by making faster and cheaper transactions available using multi-sig channels on the blockchain.

It isn’t here just yet, but experts predict a launch sometime in 2018.