I've been reading a lot of positive reports on the Lightning Network and people seem to be using it to do everything from buying articles on Yalls.org to buying stickers and merchandise from the Blockstream Store. I would love to give it a try but it seems right now that you can only use Lightning payments if you a bitcoin full node and a lightning node setup on your machine. My ISP sucks so I don't really have enough of a data cap to download and run the full bitcoin blockchain. I read about a light client called Neutrino that would work from desktops and smartphones without running a full node but I can't find any information on when it will be released. I'd be happy even to run a beta version to test it because I only plan to put a couple of dollars in my lightning channel to begin with to play around with it. Does anyone know when it will be released and will the first version run on iOS and Android?
I am eager to try LN too but I'm too lazy and technically illiterate to figure out how to run both full nodes so I'm waiting for them to release this app also. From listening to Lightning Labs developers like Elizabeth Stark and Olaoluwa Osuntokun, it seems that they never give firm dates for releases of products. Basically, it will be ready when it's ready and they are happy that it is working well enough that people can use it without losing money. While they haven't given any deadlines, I'd be very surprised if we don't see a beta version in the first half of 2019.
While we wait for the full Neutrino wallet app to be released, you can make Lightning Network payments on Android and iOS with this BlueWallet app. We've tried it on Yalls.org and it worked but please only deposit small amounts https://forum.bitcoingambling.io/th...payments-with-bluewallet-for-android-ios.459/
There's a new non custodial Lightning payment apps for iOS and Android that is even better and easier to use than BlueWallet. It's already on Google Play and should appear on the iTunes App Store in the next week or two.
i saw a video demo of the neutrino client on twitter last week so i'm guessing that the release can't be too far away. if i can find the video i will add it here.
A pre alpha version of the Neutrino Client is now available on iOS. Unfortunately, it only works on testnet for now. You can try it by downing the Testflight app for iOS and adding the Lightning Labs app.
when are zap going to release a mainnet client? at this stage people aren't really interested in testnet lightning.