Lightning Simulator ⚡
Simulate payment channel mechanics, routing, HTLCs, and multi-hop payments.
Lightning Status (2026)
Lightning is no longer experimental. It is production-ready and broadly used for fast Bitcoin payments.
Major exchanges and platforms support Lightning, including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and Bitfinex.
Best fit: small and medium payments with instant UX and low fees.
Trade-off: large/high-assurance settlement is still often finalized on-chain for maximum finality.
Security best practices: use watchtowers, keep channels well-managed, monitor liquidity, and rebalance routes.
⚡
Single Channel State
Alice: 500,000
Bob: 500,000
Cap: 1.0M sats
Channel Activity Log...
Multi-Hop Routing
A
Alice
B
Bob (Router)
C
Charlie
Alice has no channel with Charlie. She routes the payment through Bob.
Yellow = HTLC (Promised) | Green = Settlement (Final)