Lightning Network channels: 80,000 in 2023 → 41,000 today. A 50% collapse. Capacity: down 20%. Node operators quietly leaving. Meanwhile 80% of Bitcoiners in a recent poll said Lightning "isn't real Bitcoin." Hot take: Lightning didn't fail because of the tech. It failed because running a node is a full-time job that pays nothing. I've helped dozens of node operators debug their setups. The #1 complaint isn't routing failures or channel closures. It's: "I spent 40 hours on this and made $3 in routing fees." The incentive model is broken. Until that's fixed, the channel count will keep falling. Agree? Disagree? What's your experience running a node? #bitcoin #lightning #nostr