If Bitcoin scalability is the problem Lightning Solves, then it almost tautologically fails when you realize that entering into a Lightning Channel requires a base Bitcoin transaction. If every person on Earth tried to take on-chain Bitcoin into a LN Channel, it would skyrocket the fee-rate.
The only other option then would be for all Bitcoin purchased to exist on Lightning, so people simply buy LN Bitcoin. This is not impractical to get started; exchanges simply send and receive LN BTC. But Lightning security relies on the ability to get a transaction posted to the base layer Bitcoin.
If everyone is using lightning, and thousands of users are attacked on Lightning at once, the chain would not be able to handle the influx and would leave many victims. Not only that, but the LN node network would naturally centralize, especially with liquidity requirements.
It would be much better to properly scale some base layer.
If Bitcoin scalability is the problem Lightning Solves, then it almost tautologically fails when you realize that entering into a Lightning Channel requires a base Bitcoin transaction. If every person on Earth tried to take on-chain Bitcoin into a LN Channel, it would skyrocket the fee-rate.
The only other option then would be for all Bitcoin purchased to exist on Lightning, so people simply buy LN Bitcoin. This is not impractical to get started; exchanges simply send and receive LN BTC. But Lightning security relies on the ability to get a transaction posted to the base layer Bitcoin.
If everyone is using lightning, and thousands of users are attacked on Lightning at once, the chain would not be able to handle the influx and would leave many victims. Not only that, but the LN node network would naturally centralize, especially with liquidity requirements.
It would be much better to properly scale some base layer.