While this is great, I’m not sure that the article is accurate in stating that there is no risk to security to run transactions on the lightning network. If my research has been correct, there are new security risks involved with using the lightning network; can anyone embellish on this?
Also, I had read that in order for the lightning network to take effect, both the sending and receiving wallets have to be online simultaneously to effectively become nodes on the network in order for the transaction to complete.
This is correct mate, both parties should be open to make the transaction successful. The only question is what if the other parties chooses to close its channel? What will happen to the transaction. There's also this sort of broadcasting previous channels as well, but I need to read more and understand how everything stands out. If more technical people like @HCP can chime in it will be a good discussions for all of us.
I think this is a scalable option, but there is a lot of learning and implementation that needs to happen in order for the network to take effect, am I right? And to have a large network of nodes to run, does this allow for the risk of centralization? I’m interested to read more about the pros and cons of the lightning network as a viable option to help fix current issues with bitcoin transactions. Anyone have any articles to link that are relevant?
Yes, there will be sort of learning curve not just for newbies but for all of us because this will be a new technology. So many good reads around the net, like in medium but sometimes you need to filter out which info is correct.
On the bright side, this is really a welcoming news. Since a heard a few weeks that they have been testing it, this is the first time I saw that a live production test is successful. We all have been talking about Lightning Network to be the solution so I hope it will be implemented in Q1 next year so that all this issues can be fix ASAP. However, I'm expecting a lot of problems in the beginning, but I think we can get a hang on it after a few months of using it ourselves. Goodluck to everyone and let see how it goes.