What is the Lightning Network?
A network built on Bitcoin for payments through channels, without recording every payment as its own blockchain transaction.
Not to be confused with: a payment on mainnetMainnet and test networksMainnet is Bitcoin's live network. Test networks let people try software with coins that are not intended to have real value..
People route payments between linked payment channelsPayment channelA shared pot of bitcoin between two parties on the blockchain, which they can pay each other from, off-chain, as often as they like.. Opening or closing a channel can create a Bitcoin transaction, but the payments inside the channel usually do not appear individually on a Bitcoin explorer.
A Lightning invoice or payment hash is not a Bitcoin transaction ID. Check the payment in the Lightning wallet or service used, and confirm which network the sender chose.
References
- Lightning Labs, “Payment Channels”.