but building on lightning is still a pain, and getting it reliable with all the moving parts is still close to impossible.
we’ll get there, luckily we’re all excited early adopters here, aren’t we?
What are other layer 2's besides lightning and why aren't they catching on?
I don't have enough knowledge, but they are still early and adoption by the ecosystem (and finding good use cases) is essential.
There’s @Blockstream liquid, which is really a side chain.
It’s privacy focused and has Tether built into its 1 minute blocks.
Ark https://ark-protocol.org/
it's not really competition for lightning but could probably take over the bulk clearinghouse elements of lightning and enable further savings on block space usage... it's more like SWIFT versus Visa ark as to lightning
Most promising now is Ark, it should launch maybe by the end of this year