Hey v4vapid,
Interesting post!
I don't believe Lighting was created by Blockstream. In my understanding, it is an open source project. The authors of the original Lightning Whitepaper actually went on to found their own company (not at all related to Blockstream). There are three companies that are working on the protocol and you can visit the Lightning developer Slack channel if you want to contribute. It's also entirely optional - as a BTC user you don't have to use Lightning if you don't want to.
Here's my post with my understanding of Lightning - let me know if you disagree. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@inthearena/bitcoin-s-lightning-network-what-is-it-and-how-to-test-it
Thanks, I'll definitely have a look. If this is true then the theory I presented here probably doesn't hold weight but perhaps it should not be totally disregarded.
According to Blockstreams' website they are contributing to its development:
Beyond this statement, I didn't find much else in terms of details unless I signed up for their mailing list.
Thanks for your defense of Blockstream as I do not want to make them out to be nefarious actors and there's certainly a lot more I need to learn about the Lightening network.
Thanks v4vapid - I appreciate your open mind / impartiality. Yep - Blockstream is certainly influential on lightning. I personally don't think they exercise "control" or have motives to centralise BTC - but skepticism is healthy and it is worth creating awareness on who influences the development roadmap.
Blockstream is not working on the lightning network anymore.........It sidechains for them now.