Bitcoin (BTC)-focused technology firm Casa announced that its Sats mobile Bitcoin wallet app is now available for both iOS and Android devices. Casa announced in a post published on its official blog on Sept. 5 that the mobile wallet is now available for download. Furthermore, Casa notes that the latest version of the app can be used without the company’s hardware Bitcoin Lightning node, but users who do not connect the app to a node do not have access its Lightning Network capabilities. The app supports a public address-naming system dubbed SatsTag. When Bitcoin is sent using a SatsTag, a …

Bitcoin (BTC) turned 10 years old recently, and if someone were to tell its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2008 that the new decentralized currency would still be thriving in 2019, he/she/they may assume that the experiment succeeded. However, an idea like Bitcoin is capable of existing even if it isn’t very effective at delivering on its promises, and it just so happens that a decade later, everyone is still knocking their heads against the very first criticism made in response to its white paper. After Satoshi published Bitcoin’s white paper in 2008, the first person to comment on it publicly …

Australian software programmer and Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network coder Rusty Russell warned users that “security issues have been found in various Lightning projects which could cause loss of funds.” Urgent update recommended On Aug. 30, Russell published a tweet urging LN nodes operators to update their software as soon as possible. According to the message, his warning concerns all versions of c-lightning prior to 0.7.1, lnd older than 0.7, and eclair up to version 0.3. Notably, just earlier this month blockchain development company Blockstream announced the release of the version 0.7.2 of its BTC scalability software c-lightning. Details to be …

Andreas Antonopoulos announced his new “Mastering Lightning Network” book, co-authored by René Pickhardt and Lightning Labs CTO, Olaoluwa Osuntokun. Antonopoulos, Osuntokun and Pickhardt announced their new book, “Mastering Lightning Network,” in a YouTube video published on Aug. 28. In the video, Antonopoulos noted that the three will start writing in September and that they expect to need about a year to release it. He also noted: “We’re inviting everyone in the community to help us with contributions.” On a quest for Lightning Network education Pickhardt explained that what motivated him to take part in this endeavor is the lack of …

Blockchain development company Blockstream announced the release of version 0.7.2 of its scalability software c-lightning. On Aug. 20, Christian Decker, a blockchain researcher at Blockstream, announced the new release on Twitter. According to the post, the latest version of c-lightning supports dynamic plugin management as well as “the upcoming signet.” This version is also named "Nakamoto's Pre-approval by US Congress,” and is available via GitHub. C-Lightning and the Lightning Network As previously reported by Cointelegraph, c-lightning is one of the implementations of the Lightning Network, which is an additional layer on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain that lets users set up …

Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Samson Mow says Bitcoin (BTC) is bad for payments but the Lightning Network solves this. Mow — who is also a co-founder of formerly top cryptocurrency exchange BTCC — made his remarks in an interview for SFOX blog on Aug. 15. Lightning changes the whole equation Mow conceded that he doesn’t yet have an everyday use case for Bitcoin, quipping that in daily life, he still uses credit cards, not cryptocurrency. The top coin, he argued, is designed in such a way that has an altogether different purpose: “It’s more of a store of value …

Ethereum co-founder said that the future of crypto is pluralist in response to a recent proposal of mixing the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) with Ethereum. Blockade Games using Bitcoin LN as an interface for Ethereum contracts On July 31, blockchain-focused game developer Blockade Games posted an article on implementation of Bitcoin LN as an interface for Ethereum contracts in order to enable instant payments in Bitcoin, while simultaneously triggering a series of events on Ethereum, or any other chain. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted on the news on Aug. 2, drawing attention to the fact that a blockchain developer used …

Bitcoin (BTC) users can now take advantage of the Lightning Network while sending coins on Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network designed to work across multiple chains Following the debut of support for stablecoin Tether (USDT) on Liquid, Blockstream CEO Adam Back confirmed on Twitter that the technology can also support Lightning payments. Using a combination of Lightning and Liquid allows users to benefit from the speed and low cost of off-chain transfers, along with the specific advantages of Liquid itself. “It's not so widely known but Lightning protocol is designed to work across multiple chains,” Back wrote July 30. …

The Lightning Network, a second-layer blockchain protocol designed to provide high-speed transactions for Bitcoin and other networks, has a new node monitoring tool. According to an official blog post, written by software developer Valentine Wallace on July 24, Lightning Labs has released an open source “drop-in, dockerized monitoring solution” for alpha testing called lndmon. One of the main goals of this new tool is to provide a way to prevent certain network issues before they manifest. According to the announcement, there were problems with the peer-to-peer network this year that could have prevented by means of a node monitor. As …

A new political action committee (PAC) supporting presidential candidate Andrew Yang is allowing donations in Bitcoin (BTC) via Lightning Network. The PAC, named Humanity Forward Fund (Humanity FWD), rolled out its Bitcoin-powered fundraising program, named “21 Days of Bitcoin for the 21st Century” on July 25, and will continue accepting Bitcoin donations until Aug. 14, according to its official website. Humanity FWD partnered with OpenNode to enable donations via Lightning Network Humanity FWD was launched by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Yang on July 24 to support his run for the presidency of the United States in 2020, Coindesk reported …

Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network nodes have claimed 2.2 BTC in “justice transactions” to deter potential thieves, a BitMex Research analysis revealed on July 15. A so-dubbed “justice transaction” is a punitive mechanism involving the closure of a lightning channel that is suspected to be attempting theft. As the report outlines: “[B]y design, when a thief attempts to steal funds on the lightning network, if caught, they do not only lose the money they tried to steal, they lose all the funds in the relevant channel. This ‘punishment’ is expected to act as a deterrent and is sometimes called ‘justice’. BitMEX …

United States-based payments startup Fold has made Lightning Network (LN) payments possible at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber and other big name retailers. The news was revealed in an official blog post published on July 10. As previously reported, the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network is a second-layer solution to bitcoin’s scalability limitations, opening payment channels between users that keep the majority of transactions off-chain, turning to the underlying blockchain only to record the net results. In its announcement, Fold reveals that participating selected retailers will settle users’ LN payments — denominated in satoshis, or one hundred millionth of one Bitcoin — via …