The so-called “Lightning network”
that is being pushed as an
alternative to Satoshi’s design does
not exist. The paper describing it
was only published earlier this year.
If implemented, it would represent a
vast departure from the Bitcoin we
all know and love. To pick just one
difference amongst many, Bitcoin
addresses wouldn’t work. What
they’d be replaced with has not been
worked out (because nobody knows).
There are many other surprising
gotchas, which I published an article
about. It’s deeply unclear that
whatever is finally produced would
be better than the Bitcoin we have
now.