Some of the most prolific bloggers and YouTubers are making the argument that the Lightning Network will end up just as centralized as our current system because hubs will form and play the role that banks play now.
Here's what I say about that.
This argument is predicated on the notion that the network will "need" hubs. I say it won't. At scale with 10M+ users and onion routing built into the protocol, Lightening Network's off chain transactions will be possible for most users without the use of a hub. Mind you, hubs may be useful in certain cases but participation in them will be voluntary. Furthermore, a user could always pay the fee for on-chain transactions and would happily do that at times when time is not a critical factor and off-chain operation would require transiting a hub. In the future, we will be able to swap between coins seemlessly (Atomic swapping), and will operate on decentralized exchanges that will allow us to choose what we want to pay in fees rather than being told what they will be. This is only one possible future and not even the most likely one.
What do you think?