By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 7 June 2024
The Lightning Network is a second layer that makes bitcoin payments faster and cheaper by moving transfers off-chain. David Marcus, co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, sees bitcoin as a neutral global settlement network that could connect real-time domestic payment systems such as FedNow, PIX, SPEI, UPI and SEPA, and says Lightspark is automating the complexity of running Lightning nodes.
Liquidity and the work of managing payment channels remain barriers, and tools such as Lightning Labs’ Loop, Breez SDK and Amboss Hydro address parts of the problem. Calle, the developer behind the Cashu ecash protocol, says most people will not run their own Lightning node and that over-marketing may have created unrealistic expectations. Cloud nodes from Blockstream, Voltage and Lightspark are presented as a compromise between decentralisation and efficiency, and Erik Alvarez of Velas Commerce describes ecash as a third layer above Lightning.