If you are a Bitcoin user, you have definitely heard about the lightning network. Lightning is a solution for Bitcoin’s scalability challenge. In case you don’t know, by the scalability challenge, we mean Bitcoin’s high transaction time and high fees.

Bitcoin’s adoption is increasing day by day in different communities. In 2021, this cryptocurrency was announced as the official currency of El Salvador. The number of its users today is incomparable to the number of its users in the initial years. Some experts believe that in this situation, we have to do something for the scalability challenge. Lightning is such a solution.

Lightning has different channels for Bitcoin’s transactions. Using these channels, you don’t need to record all transactions on-chain. Only the first transaction and the last one is recorded on the main blockchain. All other transactions are done off-chain among the parties included in a channel. It is a fantastic innovation that reduces the load of the main network and improves scalability.

By the way, lightning has its specific wallets. In other words, you can’t choose any Bitcoin wallet you wish while using lightning. All parties included in lightning channels must use lightning wallets. For this reason, in this article, we have decided to introduce and investigate some of the most famous lightning wallets. Stay with us.

Phoenix

The Phoenix wallet is the second product of the ACINQ company. It was officially launched in 2019. It was only available for Android devices at first, but it recently released its IOS version.

Advantages:

• Simple UI
• Being open-source
• Being non-custodial
• High security

Disadvantages:

• Only being appropriate for the lightning transactions and not supporting the transactions of the main network

The download link: Phoenix

Blue Wallet

Blue Wallet was first launched in 2017 as a Bitcoin wallet and it later on added the feature of supporting lightning. Blue Wallet has three different services: for ordinary transactions, for multi-sig transactions, and for lightning transactions.

Advantages:

• Being multi-purpose
• Supporting different languages and different currencies

Disadvantages:

• Being custodial and not providing the users with their private keys in the lightning sector
• Being to some extent complex for the amateur users

The download link: Blue Wallet

Wallet of Satoshi

Wallet of Satoshi was launched in 2018 as a lightning-specific wallet. It claims to be the world’s most simple lightning wallet. Looking at its simple and user-friendly UI, you can figure out that this claim is correct.

Advantages:

• Simplicity
• Supporting different languages and currencies

Disadvantages:

• Being custodial and not providing the users with their private keys

The download link: Wallet of Satoshi

Breez

Breez is a non-custodial open-source wallet that has a simple UI and is appropriate for amateur users. Breez has some interesting features. For example, it supports a feature called “Connect to Pay” that lets users share their transaction links through common messengers. Or, it provides the ability to buy Bitcoin directly.

Advantages:

• Being non-custodial and open-source
• Supporting diverse features

Disadvantages:

• Having the risk of violating users’ privacy due to backing up the wallet through Google or Apple’s cloud storage
• The download link: Breez

Muun

Muun is a single-coin non-custodial wallet whose idea was developed in 2013. It merged the lightning network to let users choose among the off-chain and on-chain transactions based on their will.

Advantages:

• Supporting both ordinary and lightning transactions
• Providing the users with their private keys
• High level of security
• Simple UI

Disadvantages:

• Not supporting the direct buying of Bitcoin
• The download link: Muun

Conclusion

In this article, we had a brief review of the lightning network and then introduced some of the best lightning wallets in 2022. Of course, the lightning wallets are not limited to these 5 options. Don’t forget that lightning was launched 6 years after the creation of Bitcoin. So, it is a relatively new technology and new features are added to it every day. If you want to use the lightning network, we recommend that you do not send large amounts of Bitcoin to lightning wallets. Besides, try to update your data and the applications you use regularly.