Part 5/12:
The Lightning Network’s scalability is inherently limited.
Proponents claim that to handle the entire world's Bitcoin transactions via Lightning, the Bitcoin blockchain would need to be increased up to 133 times its current capacity—requiring a significant overhaul of the protocol. Furthermore, the network's ability to onboard users is limited by block space; if most blocks are filled with Lightning-related transactions, only a tiny fraction of the global population can be onboarded annually. All this highlights that Lightning is not yet practical for mass adoption at scale.