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 [email protected].

→ Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/

→ More Episodes: https://www.stacksats.how/podcast

→ Lightning Address: ⚡[email protected]

→ Nostr NIP-05: [email protected]

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