Lightning Network is a technological solution designed to solve the problem of transaction speed in the Bitcoin blockchain by introducing off-chain transactions.
Like the main blockchain, the Lightning Network removes intermediaries from central institutions such as banks, which are responsible for routing most transactions today.
The Lightning Network was first formally proposed in a paper by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Driya in 2016.
A hard fork refers to a radical change in the protocol of a blockchain network that effectively results in two branches, one following the previous protocol and one following the new version.
Proof of Work (PoW) is a decentralized consensus mechanism that requires network participants to make an effort to solve an arbitrary mathematical puzzle so that no one can fool the system.
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner is a computerized device or hardware that uses an ASIC solely to mine bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.
Blockchain is a type of shared database that differs from a regular database in how it stores information; Blockchains store data in blocks, which are then linked to each other using cryptography.
Cryptocurrency is a form of digital asset based on a network distributed over a large number of computers. This decentralized structure allows them to exist outside the control of governments and central authorities.
Decentralized applications, also known as “dApps” or “dapps”, are digital applications that run on a network of blockchain computers instead of relying on a single computer.