On-chain BTC transactions can take anywhere from 10 minutes to about an hour to confirm, whereas Lightning Network transactions are confirmed almost instantly. Furthermore, on-chain BTC transactions have higher fees than Lightning transactions. In terms of transactions per second, on-chain BTC can handle about 5 transactions per second, whereas Lightning Network is capable of handling up to 1,000,000 transactions per second.

The Lightning Network takes a massive load off of the Bitcoin base layer and allows for near-instant, almost free BTC transactions. This is a big win for Bitcoin in terms of mass adoption because it addresses one of the main criticisms of BTC—slow transaction speeds and high fees.
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​Learn more about the Lightning Network in our blog!