Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has formally announced intentions to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) onto its platform.
The Integration
The aforementioned announcement surfaced following the CEO of the exchange, Brian Armstrong, responding to a tweet from Bitcoin supporter Wicked that questioned the company’s lack of public commentary on the scaling solution.
Armstrong explained that the lack of Lightning Network responses is due to his tweets’ automatic deletion after a few months. The CEO then gave the community his word that Coinbase would eventually include the Lightning Network since it is a “great” option.
The move will bring Coinbase into step with rivals like Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, and OKEx that currently support L2 solutions, though no precise timeframe has been given. It’s also important to note that the Lightning Network, is a Layer 2 network constructed on top of Bitcoin with the goal of addressing the scalability issues with the cryptocurrency. Due to its low costs and quick transaction times, LN is the most widely used L2 solution for Bitcoin.
Many of the company’s stakeholders, including MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, appeared to be pleased with Armstrong’s statement. Derek Ross, a well-known Bitcoin fan, has stated that the adoption of Lightning support for deposits and withdrawals will be “phenomenal.” Some stakeholders, on the other hand, remain suspicious, believing that the crypto exchange may take too long to implement the technology.
More Details About the Lightning Network
LN is intended to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper, allowing the cryptocurrency’s blockchain to scale. It operates by dumping certain transaction “traffic” to LN’s Layer 2 network, allowing the primary Bitcoin blockchain (Layer 1) to move more quickly.
Twitter, one of the well-known businesses using the Lightning Network, now enables users to send and receive Bitcoin tips. Similar to what was said, this functionality was made available through the Lightning Network-compatible payment software Strike, which enables Twitter’s 360 million monthly active users to transfer Bitcoin payments immediately and without charge.
Additionally, since late August, various sites have made it possible to accept Bitcoin payments. One such platform is Substack. Additionally, El Salvador recently legalized Bitcoin, and the government’s Chivo wallet is Lightning-compatible, allowing for simple cross-border transactions.
A peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange called Paxful, which has 1.5 million members just in Africa, announced that it would accept Lightning payments. This might allow millions of users to send bitcoins more quickly and cheaply.
