Fresh capital
Lightning Labs has raised $10 million in my own chapter to develop the product called Lightning Loop. Investors in this round are a number of VC funds, with Craft Ventures in the lead, and come on top of the previous $ 2.5 million funding round.
Jack Dorsey, who previously served as CEO of Twitter and Square (CashApp), an early investor and supporter of Lightning Labs. The company will now complete its beta version and greatly improve the functionality of the Lightning Network.
New technology
Lightning Loop is a “non-depot on and off ramp” that can easily be used to fly bitcoin between Lightning Network and Bitcoin. Till now, the user has been restricted to moving only the same amount of Bitcoin as the original ports in the network. Loop removes these restrictions.
The technical forklift is on Lightning Loop, which optimizes how much money you need to have in the payment channel on Lightning Network in order to predict and final settlement. It’s a big step away from “money in = money out”, as I’ve used many cases to use another payment technology like Lightning Network.
Different actors solve different problems on the same protocol
The news that Lightning Labs is raising money comes right after the new mobile app Strike was introduced to the market. Strike allows users to link their bank account and credit card to Lightning Network. It allows users to settle on Lightning from their bank account and not really worry about it going through Bitcoin. Seamless integration. This means that online stores can advertise with bitcoin payment, but customers do not have to make an exchange on their own, they can easily click “buy” and the technology takes over.
Both c represent a major upgrade of the Lightning Network user interface and optimists hope this can lead to mass adoption in online shopping and money exchange.