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People have been using bitcoin for various purposes for a while now, it's nothing new.

Lightning is seeming like a viable options as it grows ever larger, additionally most of the new development in privacy is happening in Bitcoin. Very cool stuff.

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And LN is nothing new- it just allows people to transact ...cheaper and faster. Okay that's cool, but that's not a new goal; That's the original goal of Bitcoin

As for adding new functionalities into Bitcoin, the creator of Ethereum originally wanted to build Smart Contract on Bitcoin but was rebuffed by Bitcoin developers. Ditto for Zcash. Bitcoin developers don't have a good track record of incorporating new functionalities into the Bitcoin protocol...

You're missing the point of the article. A particular smart contract, or zk-snarks, or a new Bitcoin protocol functionality... these are not application layers, they are a particular application. Lightning is an application layer that enables a whole new set of applications.

And this is groundbreaking stuff, you can't expect it to have been released in Bitcoin's original 2009 client.

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