Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, has recently announced the upcoming plan to offer Lightning Network to empower Bitcoin transactions. According to Armstrong’s tweet, Coinbase’s team had been working on this solution to “enable faster/cheaper Bitcoin transactions.”
A complete integration is expected to come soon.
Coinbase’s adoption of the Lightning Network enables faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions, making it more practical for everyday use. The move received strong support from many industry members and figures, including Michael Saylor.
Saylor praised it as an excellent decision, asserting that Lightning Network will “revolutionize Bitcoin transactions and deliver the power of the bitcoin network to billions of people worldwide.” He also predicted an inevitable adoption of the protocol within the crypto sector in the future.
Coinbase Introduces Lightning Network Integration
Michael Saylor, a prominent Bitcoin advocate and co-founder of MicroStrategy, previously confirmed that he has integrated Lightning Network technology into his corporate email address. MicroStrategy is one of the world’s largest holders of Bitcoin.
Earlier in August, the US exchange hinted at the possibility of offering the Bitcoin Lightning Network solution to onboard more users to Bitcoin. At that time, Coinbase was reportedly exploring ways to integrate the protocol but didn’t detail its plan or launch date.
One of Coinbase’s biggest competitors, Binance, announced in July its successful integration. The move gave customers an alternative withdrawal option at high speed and extended capacity. The Bitcoin Lightning Network is also the exchange’s solution for congestion, which has been Binance’s headache during periods of high trading volume.
Coinbase has been proactive in driving crypto adoption amid the regulatory pressure. Recently, the platform has joined forces with Circle to secure the future of USDC.
Apart from that, the exchange made headlines with Base, a newly launched Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution to address the network’s scalability issues, allowing for faster and more cost-effective transactions.
As Ethereum’s congestion and gas fees have been concerns, Base is a timely solution that not only enhances user experience but also encourages more users to participate in the ecosystem.
The company reportedly planned to roll out a lending platform for institutional investors in the US.Recent filings show that Coinbase successfully raised $57 million to fuel the launch of this new platform. This strategic move could further cement Coinbase’s position as a key player in the landscape.
Customers can lend funds and get more collateral than the loan amount. This helps protect them from possible risks. Coinbase can then take these extra assets and lend them to other companies, a bit like how banks provide money services in traditional finance.
Bitcoin Made Usable and Accessible
Scalability has been Bitcoin’s major pain point. Many cryptocurrency exchanges are now exploring the potential of the Lightning Network to address this issue and make Bitcoin more user-friendly.
The Layer-2 protocol enables faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions, allowing users to make multiple payments to each other without having to pay the transaction fees associated with each individual payment on the blockchain.
The Lightning Network is still under development, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way Bitcoin is used. It could make Bitcoin a viable option for everyday payments and also make Bitcoin more attractive to businesses, as it would allow them to accept Bitcoin payments without having to pay high transaction fees.
Additionally, the integration of Lightning Address transactions allows developers to replace traditional invoices or payment requests with more user-friendly identifiers, such as email addresses, simplifying the payment process for users. As of June 2023, the capacity of the Bitcoin Lightning Network stands at 5,630 BTC.
With faster transaction times, more people may want to use BTC to make transactions. However, there are many networks that are still much faster than BTC, which may make it less attractive as time goes on.
