Turns out my estimations of the Lightning Network's growth were underrated, I was using an outdated explorer that was listing less nodes, use this explorer for the updated amount of nodes:
https://rompert.com/recksplorer/This is the old url:
https://lnmainnet.gaben.win/Notice how there's 300 new LN nodes in the other url that the old url is not caching.
LN seems to be growing pretty fast, it will eventually go parabolic once it's easier to run. Right now (I think) you need a full Bitcoin node to run a node, but eventually they will make it so anyone can run an LN node without running a full Bitcoin node.
By 2021 I predict big companies like Steam, eBay or even Amazon starting to accept Bitcoin payments through a much more robust and user friendly LN. Coupled with the store of value properties which will remain as solid as always, the combination will make the price go beyond $100,000.
Your predictions are heavily contingent on the large companies using the Lightning Network, but what if that doesn't happen? Steam used to accept bitcoin, but they stopped recently due to (probably) the confirmation times. Wouldn't it be a little odd if they start accepting it again? I guess the lightning network solves any issues that Steam may have had with the cryptocurrency, but it would be odd if they flip flop around the subject.
I do see this all working out if the big companies want to use the LN, but isn't it true that the LN brings some form of centralization to a what should be decentralized currency? I swear I've seen people talking about how it brings centralization into the picture, but I'm not 100% sure on how the LN works.