Lightning can greatly increase the number of transactions that Bitcoin can support, but there are questions about whether it creates a problematic potential for financial centralization if successful.
As a P2P system LN doesn't really work for decentralized payments other than micropayments, for reasons others have pointed out here.
If you allow some well-capitalized hubs to form, that help solve the routing problems, then LN can easily achieve significant scaling for most kinds of payments (think digital hawala). The issue is that this is likely to require hubs that create and hold lightning channels with lots and lots of users, creating the potential for the distorting effects of centralization.
The greater issue is one we've seen now with Ethereum: if a Layer 1 app (the DAO, or LN) running on a Layer 0 blockchain comes to dominate the blockchain's usage, then there exists the potential that failure of Layer 1 can traumatize Layer 0.
As a P2P system LN doesn't really work for decentralized payments other than micropayments, for reasons others have pointed out here.
If you allow some well-capitalized hubs to form, that help solve the routing problems, then LN can easily achieve significant scaling for most kinds of payments (think digital hawala). The issue is that this is likely to require hubs that create and hold lightning channels with lots and lots of users, creating the potential for the distorting effects of centralization.
The greater issue is one we've seen now with Ethereum: if a Layer 1 app (the DAO, or LN) running on a Layer 0 blockchain comes to dominate the blockchain's usage, then there exists the potential that failure of Layer 1 can traumatize Layer 0.