Lightning Labs releases lnd 0.4-beta, first mainnet-ready Lightning Network implementation

On March 15, 2018, Lightning Labs shipped lnd 0.4-beta, the first release of its Lightning Network daemon deemed safe enough to point at real bitcoin on mainnet, alongside a $2.5M seed round. The team paired the milestone with the now-traditional advice to "experiment with only small amounts," which is roughly how every Layer-2 launch begins. It marked the practical starting line for Bitcoin's primary payments scaling layer.