Lightning Network is currently in its beta stage, but there have been findings that there would be some good earning opportunities for early adopters of this technology. Marc van der Chijs explains how he was able to earn some money by setting up the Lightning node and allowing many channels to connect to it. The most important thing is that your initial investment would return back to you safely whenever you choose to close the channel.
Bear Market Is a Blessing in Disguise
The current bear market is a blessing in disguise since it will allow many tech-savvy people to concentrate and learn new technologies like Lightning network and experiment with some unique test cases. Since the technology is still in its infancy, one can adopt it early and try to learn its functionality to get the best out of it.
In the Bull market, many will be concentrating only on the price action and get distracted from the technology. There are many areas in Bitcoin which are yet to be explored by the public, but most of them speculate or trade to earn quick money. Those who have invested time in understanding the fundamentals are well placed, and so they would have invested long term because they understand the underlying value of Bitcoin and are confident on this technology to go places.
First Block Capital's Lightning Experiment
First Block Capital is Canada's first registered cryptocurrency investment firm. They are focusing on the Lightning Network and doing some experiments to understand this technology. Surprisingly, they ended up earning some money even in while using its beta version.
First Block Capital is still struggling to overcome a lot of hurdles and failures, but their team is working hard to leverage this groundbreaking technology that would be the second layer solution for Bitcoin. They are looking for a business model on top of Lightning Network. They also set up a Lightning node and quickly they became the 6th most connected node on the Lightning network with over 200 open channels.
Surprise Money Made via Lightning Node
People at First Block Capital crashed the channel by mistake and ended up going to "ground zero." This is expected since they are only experimenting and only by crashing the system several times they can learn a lot about this new technology. After many channels crashed, they checked the node to see if they lost all the money that they invested. But surprisingly they found out that they have made $125 with an initial investment of $2000. The $2000 in Bitcoins were spread over 200 nodes and the transactions that used their nodes and channels paid the fees that slowly were accumulating over time without them being aware that they are making passive money using the network. They also can close the channels anytime and get their $2000 investment back anytime.
Gathering Lightning Data - Another Earner
The people at First Block Capital found out another important way to earn money during their experiment. This idea came from them not knowing the transaction details that went through their channel and helped them in earning their fees. The opportunity awaits anyone who builds a website that gathers and analyzes the Lightning data that helps people to know the transaction that passed their channel.
Lightning Network - Internet 2.0
Lightning would be a game-changer for Bitcoin and would be a disruptive technology that could completely change the way the payment system is handled on the internet. The business model of the big internet companies would change since microtransactions will become a reality with negligible fees. For example, one could earn Bitcoin by just viewing ads on websites, or they pay the author for their articles in the easiest and most secure way possible using the Lightning network.
Lightning Technology is something that everyone should experiment with now by setting up node and then see if they have any earning opportunity, which might be a game changer for those who missed the initial Bitcoin Boat.