Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

1. How can you use lightning network when you're offline?

The same way that you'd use Bitcoin. Keep the important channel(s) open indefinitely.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

2. It looks like the most efficient evolution is a network where everyone connects with only a few, big, stable nodes?

Yes, but not necessary.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

3. What happens if everyone wants to get their bitcoin out of the network at the same time?

What happens if everyone wants to move their Bitcoin right now? This is a useless appeal to the extreme. Nothing unpredictable happens.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

4. What happens if the big nodes decide to just go offline??

Nothing. Channels can be closed (there are timeouts anyways).

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

5. If it doesn't end up being the hub/spoke type network i mentioned in 2), would there be issues with routing or are there ideas on how to make routing a non issue? (appreciate some learning materials on this if anyone has them).

Routing issues are exaggarated. If there is no route, then make another channel closer to the recipient.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

6. If the Lightning Network ends up being what everyone uses, who will use the main network? Also, does that mean that mining might be impacted?

LN for smaller transactions where you need less security; main chain for large ones.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

7. If block rewards keep reducing but transaction volumes don't increase, will that impact mining?

No.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

Or is the idea that fees will high enough to pay miners?

Correct.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

Does this also assume that the value of Bitcoin must be high?

No, but given the deflationary nature of it that is unavoidable as long as there is any growth per year at all.

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

I also started thinking the other day about what it means to have my bitcoin locked into a lightning channel... is there some sort of asset conversion taking place? To me it seems like a core feature of my bitcoin is temporarily removed (the right to pay a miner to inscribe something on the ledger). I went further to imagine that, perhaps I cannot afford the fee to bring back that feature of my bitcoin, so I am essentially left with an IOU that can never be claimed... which is scary to think about. I am sure that that isn't possible though.

No. Stop reading kool-aid propaganda. Anything you lock up into a LN channel is BITCOIN that you OWN.

Quote from: figmentofmyass on January 18, 2019, 05:35:33 AM

Quote from: Fork_da_dork on January 17, 2019, 12:00:14 PM

By my calculations, 1 year of full 1mb blocks would be 52.5gb of chain growth. At that rate, it would take ~20 years to fill up my 1 TB SSD... that's nuts! I also live in an area with good internet and I can download at 100mbps, so it would only take me a few minutes to download it.

storage really isn't the primary bottleneck. network latency is the biggest problem, followed by upload bandwidth limitations.

although it's good to keep in mind: we don't want to engineer for the best case scenario with plans to max out average or above-average hardware. by and large, people will not buy dedicated hardware just to run a bitcoin node. most people are only willing to dedicate a portion of their resources (storage space/CPU/upload bandwidth) to bitcoin. if running it starts eating too many resources, they'll just shut it down.

@Fork_da_dork: Try running a full sync on ETH using your current system, and I'm talking about the kind that includes all the states not the fast-sync bullshit that they've added. The chain is over 1 TB in size. Ping me back after a week or two once you've given up. Is this what you want for Bitcoin?