Taiwanese electronics giant HTC has launched its new smartphone Exodus 1s, enabling users to run a full Bitcoin (BTC) node on mobile. First smartphone to support full Bitcoin node In line with an announcement in May 2019, HTC launched the Exodus 1s at the Lightning Conference in Berlin on Oct. 19 and started selling the first devices during the even using the Lightning payment network, the firm said in a press release to Cointelegraph. The new Exodus 1s is a lower-cost version of the pioneering HTC’s blockchain-powered phone Exodus 1, which recently added support of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Priced at …

French Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network (LN) implementation developer ACINQ introduced its second-generation Lightning Network wallet, Phoenix, via Twitter, on Oct. 18. A video accompanying the post demonstrates a number of wallet functions, all accessed via a user-friendly interface. From setup to receiving and making payments in under a minute From a fresh install of the wallet app on an Android device, setting up a new wallet is a single click away. Although the new wallet has no open channels, it can still produce an LN invoice and receive funds. On receipt of an incoming transaction, the app offers to set …

The next release of major Bitcoin (BTC) wallet software Electrum will support off-chain scalability solution Lightning Network (LN). The Electrum official Twitter account announced the upcoming LN integration in a tweet sent on Oct. 14. The tweet announced: “The next release of Electrum will support Lightning payments. Our lightning node implementation has been merged into Electrum's master branch.” Electrum also confirmed that the wallet will employ a new implementation developed in-house, written in Python. High hopes for Lightning Network Lightning Network is believed by many Bitcoin proponents to be the solution to the network’s scalability limitations. Recently, the chief strategy …

One of the developers of Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network has secured $8 million in funding from partners, including a bank partially owned by the French state. State-owned Bpifrance funds Lightning development In a news release published on Oct. 9, Bitcoin technology company ACINQ confirmed the investment, which brings the total raised to $10 million. The funding came from the lead contributor Idinvest Partners, which focuses on small and medium-sized European businesses. Also involved was Bpifrance, an investment bank created by two French public entities. As such, the government has come conspicuously close to directly funding the improvement of Bitcoin amid …

New York-based crypto custody startup Casa has released Casa Node 2, a new iteration of the industry’s popular pre-synced Bitcoin (BTC) full node product. Original Casa Node did a great job, the firm says According to an Oct. 8 blog post, Casa Node 2 offers a faster and smoother Bitcoin and Lightning experience by deploying a faster processor on Raspberry Pi 4, with 4GB RAM and a 1TB solid state drive. In the announcement, Casa stated that their original Casa node did a great job as a full Bitcoin and Lightning node in a reliable device. However, the company “wanted …

The chief strategy officer at Bitcoin (BTC) technology firm Blockstream has said that the current block size capacity may not even be needed in the future. Speaking in an interview with industry news outlet Decrypt on Oct. 6, Samson Mow said that, as off-chain scaling solutions such as the Lightning Network (LN) progress, Bitcoin will need less on-chain capacity. Current block size is suitable According to Mow, Bitcoin now has the equivalent of 4MB blocks if transactions which use Segregated Witness technology are included. The future will show, however, “that the current block size may actually be ‘too big,’” he …

One of the Bitcoin (BTC) space’s best-known and most outspoken developers has pledged to advertise Binance for the rest of the year if the exchange implements specific features. Wertheimer tackles Binance’s lack of SegWit, Lightning In a Twitter debate beginning on Oct. 2, Udi Wertheimer has made an unusual decision to influence development of Binance, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. Appealing to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (known as “CZ”), Wertheimer said he could potentially change his Twitter profile picture to Binance’s logo for the rest of the year, stating: “ok hear me out @cz_binance , if you add …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network (LN) developer Rusty Russel has published the full disclosure of the network’s vulnerability discovered in August, accompanied by a solution. Russel pointed out that the vulnerability appeared while opening funding channels. The described process does not require that receivers check if a transaction is the one promised by the funder in terms of amounts and the actual scriptpubkey. Scriptpubkey is an output transaction script that requires specific conditions to be observed for a receiver to spend their Bitcoins. The file explains: “A lightning node accepting a channel must check that the funding transaction output does indeed …

The number of Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network (LN) nodes has reached 10,000 for the first time, according to real-time LN statistics site 1ML. According to 1ML, the number of nodes on the LN has grown by 3.17% over the past 30 days to reach a record high of 10,003 network nodes at press time. At the same time, the number of nodes with active channels is 5,975 out of total of 36,246 channels at press time, with just a 0.34% growth over the past month. The LN is a second-layer blockchain protocol designed to provide high-speed transactions for Bitcoin, wherein …

The Fold app, a mobile shopping app that supports Bitcoin’s Lightning Network enabling users to withdraw funds to an external Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, has raised $2.5 million and added a fiat currency payment option. In a Sept. 25 blog post, Fold’s editor, Will Reeves, informed the public that the app’s users can now spend both fiat currency and Bitcoin at online and in-store retailers by synchronizing their credit card or Lightning wallet. Fold has also enabled its users to stack sats when making purchases with fiat and Bitcoin at major retailers such as Amazon, Uber, Starbucks and Hotels.com, further rewarding …

The creators of Bitcoin (BTC) wallet Zap have introduced a new tool for instantly purchasing Bitcoin using a bank account via the Lightning Network. Lightning powers instant debit card Bitcoin buys In a blog post and associated social media posts on Sept. 19, Zap Solutions founder Jack Mallers said Olympus was specifically designed to bypass offerings from BitPay and Coinbase. The Lightning Network facilitates instant delivery of BTC purchases, and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures are kept to a minimum. “Someone who has never experienced Bitcoin before should be able to swipe their debit card, get Bitcoin delivered to them …

Following a recent warning on vulnerabilities on Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network (LN), a startup claims to have found instances of the vulnerability being exploited. Upgrade advised to avoid loss of funds Olaoluwa Osuntokun, CTO at LN-focused startups Lightning Labs and ACINQ, revealed the news in a brief statement on Linux Foundation’s domain on Sept. 10, claiming that there are confirmed instances of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) “being exploited in the wild.” The vulnerability was first reported on Aug. 30 by LN coder Rusty Russell. At the time, the Australian software programmer warned of security issues in a number of …