Prominent legal expert and crypto advocate John Deaton has taken on the Lightning Network describing it as inferior to the “Spend The Bits” protocol on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
XRP lawyer weighs in on Lightning Network
Deaton made his preference known via Twitter on a Saturday, while declaring his involvement in “Spend the Bits” as an angel investor and his new position as general counsel.
“[The] The main reason I invested in Spend The Bits is my sincere and honest belief that it is a superior alternative to the Lightning Network for spending your Bitcoin,” Deaton wrote to encourage his followers to consider the protocol.
Notably, this is not the first time Deaton has publicly endorsed “Spend The Bits” as an alternative to the widely recognized Lightning Network on the Bitcoin blockchain. Earlier last month, the pro-Ripple advocate endorsed the protocol, describing it as “a much better, faster, and more secure way to spend your Bitcoin than using the Lightning Network.”
Why John Deaton thinks spending bits is superior
Interestingly, Deaton’s announcement on Saturday was particularly timely, coinciding with a tweet shared by crypto detective “WhaleWire” that highlighted a concerning development in the Lightning Network. The tweet, shared by WhaleWire, claimed that a prominent Bitcoin developer had identified a significant security risk within the Lightning Network leading him to announce his departure from the project.
According to the tweet, the developer claimed that there were intentional backdoors in the Lightning Network’s code, potentially giving attackers full control of the network. Notably, some of the major supporters of the Lightning Network include Tether, Bitfinex, and BlockStream. This claim has sparked questions and concerns about the security and integrity of the Lightning Network.
Recently, WhaleWire highlighted that Bitcoin’s Lightning Network usage declined sharply by 84% from the previous year, and its capacity declined by 15% over the past three months.
Currently, the Lightning Network can facilitate transactions involving only 5,338 BTC, according to Statistics of “IML”, representing only 0.025% of the total Bitcoin supply. This striking development has raised questions about the robustness and sustainability of the network. This surprisingly negative statistic is further compounded by the decrease in Layer 2 payment protocol capacity by approximately 15% over the last three months or so.