Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

1.) What exactly does the LN transx accomplish that a general transx fails to do?

LN allows two parties to transact between each other without having to make an on chain (and thus costly due to fees) transactions for each transaction that they want to perform. If two people were to make 5 transactions on an LN channel, instead of paying 5 transactions worth of transaction fees, they would only need to pay 2 transactions of transaction fees (opening and closing transaction).

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

2.) ELI5 the mechanics of LN and the transx that occur.

Two people decide to make a LN payment channel. They make a transaction that sends Bitcoin to a 2-of-2 multisig address. Then they make another transaction which spends from the multisig address and sends Bitcoin to their own addresses. This second transaction is not broadcast. When one person in that channel pays the other person, they remake the second transaction and change the amount that their address will receive. Again, this transaction is not broadcast. They repeat that step as long as they want. When both people decide they no longer want to continue transacting with each other, the last transaction that they had created will be broadcast to the network and they will receive the Bitcoin back to their addresses to be used elsewhere.

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

How is the transaction validated onto the blockchain after coins are moved?

LN transactions don't touch the blockchain until the channel is closed.

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

3.) What are channels? How does one "open/close" one? Can you create one?

Channels are opened by both people in the channel sending some amount of Bitcoin to a 2-of-2 multisig address. Channels are closed by broadcasting a transaction which spends from the multisig address and sends some agreed upon amount of Bitcoin back to the addresses of the people in the channel. If any payments over the channel had occurred, then when the channel is closed, both people will likely have a different amount of Bitcoin coming out of the channel than they had put into the channel.

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

4.) What incentives are there for miners/nodes on the network?

Miners and nodes are not directly involved in LN. However there can be LN nodes, i.e. people who have lots of channels open with other people so payments can be routed through him.

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

5.) Is there simply a single LN, or can there be several networks running concurrently alongside the blockchain?

LN is one specification of a payment channel network. There can be others as well, and you can have LN payment channels without actually being connected to any other channel in "the network".

Quote from: huskypower2015 on April 29, 2017, 09:53:42 PM

6.) What is the bridge between LN and applications running alongside the blockchain?

LN transactions are still Bitcoin transactions.