[bduerst]

Sidechains are not a workaround, even ignoring that they're centralized and marketed as such.

Sidechains only solve the problem of user scalability, not volume scalability, because they still require the Bitcoin network to verify.

For example, on a side chain it would take seconds to make 10,000,000 transactions between 2 people, but making 2 transactions between 10,000,000 people would take over a month.

[tlrobinson]

Sidechains and Lightning Network are not the same thing.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightning_Network

https://lightning.network/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/greg-maxwell-lightning-...

It's basically a network of "payment channels" you can route instantaneous off-chain payments over, which occasionally settle on the blockchain. And you don't need to trust anyone in the network with your funds.

[bduerst]

So it's an alt-coin that still requires bitcoin?

[tlrobinson]

No, you're still transacting in Bitcoin, it's just using fancy smart contracts to allow you to do it (mostly) off the blockchain in a secure way.