What? No! That is not how LN works. There won't be "filling blocks with all these microtransactions" because the microtransactions are happening off chain. LN moves transactions off chain so there will be more block space for other transactions. Fees should be lower with LN, not higher.
No, I may not have been clear with my post.
I am obviously aware that LN transactions are happening off-chain, but then these off-chain transactions converge within a block and get settled blockchain. So what im claiming is: when LN gets widespread, the rate at which these blocks get filled with off-chain transactions will be faster.
Also, people opening and closing LN channels will lead to on-chain usage too.
LN transactions do
not converge within a block and get settled blockchain. No record of them ever reaches the blockchain.
The only LN use of the blockchain is channel maintenance transactions, people opening and closing LN channels as you said.
Imagine that you and I make an agreement to trade between each other, and track our trades in a private ledger. We create an entry in a global public ledger, devoting funds to our private ledger transactions. When were done and we want to settle accounts, we record our respective final balances from our private ledger in the global public ledger. All else in the private ledger stays there, nowhere else.
Of course here, our private ledger is magical. It provides each of us a unilateral recourse to force the current balances into the global ledger, in case of cheating; so there is no counterparty risk.
Right, so the only on-chain activity that happens with LN is in the opening of a channel?
So I create a channel with 1 BTC, and now I can send instant cheap transactions out of that 1 BTC to any other open LN channel and none of that is ever recorded anywhere but it's still non gameable?
In any case, have simulation models of lightning network been performed to somehow predict what fees will be like once people all over the world are opening channels? like at what rate will people be opening channels? (from what I understand, closing a channel is irrelevant, on-chain transactions only happen when opening)
Let's say people load up $1000 bucks a month worth of BTC in a channel for the month to spend from... how do we know this will be viable and for how long?
What about spamming the LN? as in attackers opening and closing channels just like they do now to spam the network with regular spam.