Sebastian Sinclair

Bitcoin Lightning network-based business payments service Lightspark threw its support for the new Universal Money Address (UMA) standard on Monday, positioning it as a game-changer in making global payments as &#8220;easy as sending an email.&#8221;



The open-source initiative facilitates real-time settlement while incorporating compliance messaging and foreign exchange capabilities for fiat currencies.



Launched last week, UMA is being touted as an extension of LNURL, a standard protocol designed to simplify the process of making payments, according to its <a href="https://github.com/uma-universal-money-address/protocol">GitHub repository</a>.



UMA boasts secure transactions and open payments in any currency, leveraging bitcoin&#8217;s global liquidity, for cost-effective solutions, Lightspark said in a statement on Monday.



According to UMA’s <a href="https://docs.uma.me/uma-protocol/introduction">documentation</a>, the standard&#8217;s operation is delineated into four key steps:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>The sender&#8217;s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) contacts the receiver&#8217;s VASP using the recipient&#8217;s UMA, gathering essential information like the receiver&#8217;s preferred currency and applicable legal regulations.</li>



<li>The sender then specifies the amount to send in the receiver&#8217;s currency, incorporating all requisite legal and compliance data.</li>



<li>Following this, money is transferred using standard Lightning Network procedures. An invoice is generated by the receiver&#8217;s provider, which the sender settles.</li>



<li>Finally, the transaction is logged with a compliance provider for record-keeping and any subsequent analysis.</li>
</ol>



Led by David Marcus, known for his previous involvement in Meta&#8217;s unsuccessful Libra stablecoin and as a former PayPal executive, Lightspark is hoping to attract business users by solving the oft-criticized user experience pain point associated with digital asset applications.&nbsp;



Lightspark operates within a competitive arena alongside established projects like Ripple and Stellar, both of which already offer cross-border payment solutions.



Unlike <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/strike">Strike</a>, Lightspark targets enterprise users and is not available for individuals’ personal use.



To bolster adoption, Lightspark said it is offering enterprise-grade SDKs in multiple programming languages, such as Go, Rust, JavaScript/typescript, Python, and Kotlin+Java.&nbsp;



Bitnob, an Africa-focused cross-border payments company, has already jumped on board, becoming the region&#8217;s first to adopt UMA as part of the company’s own growth and activation program.



Additional adopters are expected to include industry players like Coins.ph, Foxbit, Ripio, and Xapo Bank, focusing primarily on cross-border transactions.



Meanwhile, infrastructure platforms Bakkt and Zero Hash have <a href="https://bakkt.com/blog/lightning-network-bakkt-lightspark">announced plans</a> to incorporate UMA into their service offerings, extending the standard&#8217;s reach further, Lightspark said.



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Bitcoin

Lightspark hopes Bitcoin Lightning payment standard will strike interest

Shalini Nagarajan

Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream has made its Greenlight Lightning-as-a-Service (LaaS) solution available for global commercial use, starting Thursday.



LaaS refers to a model where a provider like Blockstream offers a managed <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lightning-network">Lightning Network</a> infrastructure to developers and businesses.&nbsp;



Greenlight was first <a href="https://blog.blockstream.com/greenlight-by-blockstream-scalable-non-custodial-lightning-infrastructure-now-open-to-developers/">introduced</a> to developers in June as a concept where &#8220;your users hold their keys, while we take care of everything else.”



The service allows developers to integrate Lightning payments into their applications using Blockstream&#8217;s Application Programming Interface (API), eliminating the need to manage their own Lightning nodes, according to a <a href="https://blog.blockstream.com/greenlight-is-now-open-for-business/">blog</a>.



This removes the need for in-depth Lightning protocol knowledge or the complexities of setting up a node, Blockstream said.



The Lightning Network itself acts as a layer-2 scalability solution atop the Bitcoin blockchain, enabling rapid and low-cost BTC transactions for users. Notable exchanges have already implemented Lightning payments, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-lightning-network-binance">Binance</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-bitcoin-lightning-network-adoption-brian-armstrong">Coinbase</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/kraken-supports-bitcoins-lightning-network-after-delayed-launch">Kraken</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">After several months of gathering feedback and additional testing, Greenlight is now officially available for commercial-grade use worldwide. Read more about how you can integrate scalable, non-custodial Lightning infrastructure into your business 👇<a href="https://t.co/i5jHAmLp2q">https://t.co/i5jHAmLp2q</a>&mdash; Blockstream (@Blockstream) <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockstream/status/1712387719576551834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Alternatively, developers had to choose between custodial and non-custodial solutions, each with trade-offs in convenience, security and technical expertise.



Blockstream said Greenlight aims to provide a middle ground by removing the barriers associated with both options without compromising on security, performance or functionality.



“By offloading labor-intensive node operations to Blockstream and integrating Greenlight with just a few API calls, companies can save on costs and free up valuable time to focus on meeting the needs of their users,” the company said in a statement.



Going the non-custodial route means developers can avoid the burden of securing user funds and dealing with regulatory costs and compliance requirements, it added.



To promote adoption of non-custodial Lightning solutions, Blockstream said it provides a free Greenlight plan tailored for enthusiasts and small businesses.&nbsp;



This plan allows developers to create up to 1,000 on-demand nodes, with each node activating and staying operational as long as it&#8217;s in use by an end-user.



For larger enterprises requiring higher capacities, Blockstream offers customized pricing packages that include increased node limits and assurances of uptime and availability.



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Blockstream’s new service aims to make Lightning integration a breeze

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_624da9268198b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Taro aims to combine the security and stability of the Bitcoin network with the speed and scalability of Lightning</li>
 <li>Users will be able to send many global currencies quickly and for low fees, the company said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Lightning Labs, a startup building payments infrastructure on the Bitcoin network, is creating a new protocol that will allow users to send cross-border payments faster and for lower fees, the company announced Tuesday.



Taro, which will be supported by the layer-2 protocol Lightning, aims to combine the security and stability of the Bitcoin network with the speed and scalability of Lightning, Ryan Gentry, business development lead at Lightning Labs, said in the <a href="https://lightning.engineering/posts/2022-4-5-taro-launch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announcement</a>.



“This is what a lot of people get wrong about bitcoin,” Elizabeth Stark, co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, said in a statement. “It can be a medium of exchange without being [a] unit of account. Many users in the future will be using bitcoin without even knowing it.”



The project, which is still in the development stage, aims to “bitcoinize the dollar,” Lightning Labs said. It will allow users to route various global currencies through bitcoin by using stablecoins, making for seamless, instant payments at very low fees, the team added.



“We’ve talked to myriad community members in emerging markets who’ve told us what a big difference stablecoins on bitcoin and Lightning would make in their economies,” the company wrote in a <a href="https://medium.com/@lightning_labs/number-of-people-go-up-or-bitcoin-as-the-worlds-protocol-of-value-d1df7cefca37" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Taro makes sending assets like these possible using the bitcoin network with the instant, high volume, low fee nature of Lightning.”</blockquote>



Taro allows bitcoin to act as a “protocol of value,” Gentry said, by allowing app developers to integrate other assets alongside bitcoin on the blockchain and over the Lightning network.&nbsp;



The new functionality for Lightning was enabled by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/anticipating-bitcoins-taproot-upgrade-heres-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Taproot upgrade</a> to Bitcoin in November, one of its most significant updates to the network since 2017.



“This expands the reach of Lightning Network as a whole, bringing more users to the network who will drive more volume and liquidity in bitcoin and allowing people to easily transfer fiat for bitcoin in their apps,” he added.&nbsp;



Alongside the Taro launch, Lightning Labs also announced its $70 million Series B fundraise from investors including Valor, Brevan Howard and NYDIG.



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New Lightning Labs Protocol Promises Faster, Cheaper Payments

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_624766c9030f0" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A scalability solution, the Lightning Network allows for faster and cheaper bitcoin transactions</li>
 <li>Kraken originally expected to allow clients to withdraw and deposit bitcoin on Lightning Network in the first half of 2021</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Kraken has implemented Lightning Network to provide clients with instantaneous settlement of bitcoin transactions in an effort to help accelerate use of the asset as a medium of exchange.



The Lightning Network is a scalability solution, or layer-2, built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows users to quickly send and receive BTC with virtually no fees.



“In addition to enabling instant and inexpensive deposits and withdrawals, Kraken is providing core network services that enable the Lightning network to route payments,” a company spokesperson told Blockworks. “Overall, we hope our integration signals our support of Lightning to the broader industry.”



The network can execute millions of transactions per second — compared to Visa’s processing of about 65,000 transactions per second, according to the company.



Its system of payment channels does not publish intermediate transactions to the blockchain while open, holding them off-chain to enable instant and efficient value transfer, an April 1 Kraken blog post states. These off-chain channels remain secured by the Bitcoin blockchain’s multi-signature and timelocking features.



&#8220;Bitcoin has proven to be an effective store of value over the last decade and is now seeing increased use as a borderless global currency,&#8221; Pierre Rochard, Kraken&#8217;s bitcoin product manager, told Blockworks in an email. &#8220;The Lightning Network provides real-time settlement of Bitcoin payments, larger capacity than any other system and for the first time microtransactions at scale.”



The integration comes after Kraken had <a href="https://blog.kraken.com/post/7225/a-need-for-speed-kraken-to-launch-bitcoin-lightning-%E2%9A%A1%EF%B8%8F-integration-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced in December 2020</a> that it expected to allow clients to withdraw and deposit bitcoin on Lightning Network in the first half of 2021.



The crypto exchange revealed at the time that it would be hiring a team to focus specifically on the network. The blog post stated that “easier deposits and withdrawals are just the beginning of the additional features we are aiming to provide.”



The spokesperson declined to comment on potential future features.&nbsp;



The “rapid scaling” of Kraken’s business caused the Lightning integration to take longer than anticipated, the representative added, noting that the exchange saw trading volumes across all markets hit all-time highs and its client base double in 2021.



Matthew Gould, founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains, noted that layer-2 solutions are a big part of improving digital assets’ usability, making it easier for the mainstream population to adopt and transact with digital currencies.



“The Lightning Network is a saving grace for scaling Bitcoin, and this represents a large-scale test for the network,” Colin Pape, founder of decentralized search engine Presearch, said. “I hope that Kraken’s integration is a proof point for the validity of the Lightning Network and something that other exchanges consider, because the success of Bitcoin is the success for the digital-asset space as a whole.”



Spokespeople at competing exchanges did not immediately return requests for comment.



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