Following a year of relative inactivity, the well-funded Bitcoin tech infrastructure firm Lightspark, launched in 2022, has unveiled a platform for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network aiming to onboard businesses to the system.
Lightspark is steered by former Paypal President and entrepreneur David Marcus who co-created the Diem cryptocurrency product that was rejected by US regulators. Lightspark’s announcement on Twitter identifies the new platform as “the first enterprise-grade entry point to the Lightning Network.”
The Lightning Network is often presented as the missing piece that will help to propel Bitcoin into the mainstream. But so far, people outside of the United States have had difficulty finding Lightning products and have been unable to grasp the full potential of the system. Lightspark’s intention is to make it easier for businesses to adopt it.
Marcus declared confidently in his Twitter post: “Today, complexity and steep learning curves are a thing of the past. “
“It’s now intuitive and easy to reliably send and receive payments on the network or to build payment experiences without any of the constraints of antiquated rails,” He wrote. “Hello, streaming money!”
Lightspark joins other parties who are devoted to bringing out the best of open-source Bitcoin technology. The open protocol makes it possible to make global payments more swiftly, cheaply, and with greater control than traditional digital systems.
Last month, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey declared the roadmap Spiral, which is constructing a payment processing platform for the Lightning Network. In October, BitcoinZEBEDEE, a network-focused startup, launched an open source initiative.
“We believe the Internet badly needs an open payment protocol—one that works 24/7, settles in near real-time, is dirt cheap, interoperable, and open to all to build on,” Marcus said. “Money should flow online like emails or text messages, and the Lightning Network has the best chance of becoming the standard protocol that enables that and much more for everyone around the world.”
