Jack Dorsey backs Lightning Labs as Lightning Network Beta goes live

Blockchain startup Lightning Labs is working on making the bitcoin transactions faster and reduce to the transaction fees to near zero.The Lightning Network is a “second layer” payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain (most commonly Bitcoin). It enables instant transactions between participating nodes and has been touted as a solution to the bitcoin scalability problem. It features a peer-to-peer system for making micropayments of digital cryptocurrency through a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds or trust to third parties. Source – wikipedia

In a blog published today they annouced the release the beta version of Lightning Network Daemon, which is a developer friendly software client used to access Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.After thoroughly testing it for months finally it is live now. This means that the load on the main bitcoin blockchain can be reduced and hence increasing the transactions faster and cheaper.

They tweeted:

Bitcoin-centric startup Blockstream released a candidate version 1.0 of the Lightning protocol specification in January, and ACINQ, another like-minded startup, already offers a live, yet unpredictable beta software that works with bitcoin.

Lightning labs also announced that they have raised $2.5 million in seed funding, which includes investors like Jack Dorsey, CEO of twitter and square, David Sacks, former COO of Paypal ,Bill Lee, angel investor in Tesla and SpaceX, Jacqueline Reses, head of Square Capital and Charlie Lee, creator of litecoin.

Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark says Lightning functions as a software layer that sits on top of the bitcoin network.

“If bitcoin is like a decentralized savings account, Lightning is a decentralized checking account where users can send money instantly,” Stark told CNBC.

This week was the first Lightning beta release on the bitcoin network. “Lightning will be rolled out first to advanced users and developers … and then broader users,” Stark said.

“One thing we’ve learned is that it can be hard to predict bitcoin fees in advance, and there may be large swings, so having a solution like Lightning with very low fees on the network is key,” said Stark. “You still pay on-chain bitcoin fees when getting on or off of Lightning, but that may happen infrequently, like once a month or year.”

“Further, Lightning can allow users to take advantage of low bitcoin fees when they are cheap, while often avoiding fees when they’re high, thus actually helping to stabilize on-chain bitcoin fees in the future,” Stark said.

Although the price of bitcoin has been in a bearish trend in recent times, from a technology stand point there have been really good developments and the future looks really good for bitcoin.

Sources:

Jack Dorsey is among backers of blockchain start-up Lightning Labs

Bitcoin Lightning Startup Goes Beta With Twitter CEO Backing

Bitcoin’s Highly-Anticipated Lightning Network Goes Live As Startup Raises $2.5 Million

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