Sure you can. Just mint some "lightnings" and move on. Nothing stops a large centralized processor from creating its own coin.
L2 is also shit for actual distribution and censorship resistance. Imagine a future where BTC is 100x the current price and the people who got in early are rich as heck and nobody else can afford even a single transaction and must instead rely entirely on L2 services, never actually owning their own wealth.
> Sure you can. Just mint some "lightnings" and move on. Nothing stops a large centralized processor from creating its own coin.
But that's literally not how the lightning network works? If some intermediary in the chain wants to accept IOUs in place of real bitcoins that's on them, but on both ends you're putting in and getting real bitcoins. By "real bitcoins" I mean they can be redeemed at any point in time by closing the channel, and there's no risk of a bank run (at least to the sender and receiver). If some intermediary decides to accept IOUs instead of real bitcoins, that's on them if it comes crashing down.
It isn't how the lightning network works... until everybody without vast sums of wealth have literally no alternative except to transact through approved L2 providers. Then we are right back at numbers in centralized databases with no restriction whatsoever.
L2 is also shit for actual distribution and censorship resistance. Imagine a future where BTC is 100x the current price and the people who got in early are rich as heck and nobody else can afford even a single transaction and must instead rely entirely on L2 services, never actually owning their own wealth.