Lightning Node

A Lightning Node is a computer that participates in the Lightning Network’s peer-to-peer protocol, enabling instant payment channels. These nodes can send and receive off-chain payments and route payments to other users by opening and closing channels with other nodes. A Lightning Node requires interaction with Bitcoin’s base layer when opening and closing channels, so people often run a Bitcoin node on the same computer.

An important distinction between Lightning and Bitcoin nodes is that a Lightning Node only checks the validity of transactions it directly interacts with, while a Bitcoin full node must verify every transaction on the entire Bitcoin network, taking much longer.