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by lumannnn 1405 days ago
No, the Lightning Network is a free and open payment network on top of the Bitcoin Network.

It's a so called "layer 2" network (Bitcoin network being the layer 1).

Everyone can run a Lightning Network Node on e.g. a RaspberryPi.

One opens "Channels" to other Nodes. Multiple nodes and channels build a network and can transfer Bitcoin/Satoshis for relatively little costs from A to B.

Network nodes can charge a fee for routing payments (or data more generally speaking).

There are different implementations of a Lightning Network node. LND is probably the most used one today. But there is also C-Lightning.