Alex Leishman is the CEO of River, a US-based Bitcoin exchange that also offers Bitcoin mining and Lightning Network services.
In our discussion, we explored the challenges with Lightning today and the potential solutions that could usher in the future of Lightning payments, the best ways to measure the growth of the Lightning Network, and River’s strategy for managing one of the world’s largest Lightning nodes.
→ River: https://river.com/
Sponsors
→ Voltage: https://stacksats.how/voltage
→ Stakwork: https://stacksats.how/stakwork
This show is a Lightning podcast. That means instead of asking for likes or shares, I ask for sats.
The best way to show your support is to download Fountain from the App Store, load your wallet with some sats, and send them over the Lightning Network to kerooke@fountain.fm.
→ Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/
→ More Episodes: https://www.stacksats.how/podcast
→ Lightning Address: ⚡kerooke@fountain.fm
→ Nostr NIP-05: kr@stacker.news
Links
→ Stack Sats: https://www.stacksats.how/
→ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerooke
→ Books: https://www.kevinrooke.com/book-recommendations
→ Bitcoin News: https://stacker.news/r/kr
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
02:18 - Alex Leishman Intro
04:24 - Lightning Payments in 2025
09:22 - What Impact Will Splicing Have on Lightning?
14:49 - The Importance of Reusable QR Codes
23:29 - Catalysts for Lightning Adoption
29:05 - Measuring The Growth of the Lightning Network
35:56 - Taproot Assets & River
40:18 - Stablecoins on Lightning
46:58 - Other Layer 2 Protocols on Bitcoin
51:52 - How River Manages Their Lightning Node
57:35 - River’s Public vs. Private Channels
1:02:46 - Alex’s Lightning Advice for CZ and Binance
1:12:39 - The Lightning Round