The United States-based startup Sparkswap has completed a successful seed funding round to create a decentralized exchange based on the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network. A blog post revealed the development on Monday, April 8. According to Sparkswap’s founder Trey Griffith, the company raised $3.5 million from investors including Initialized Capital, Pantera Capital, Foundation Capital and Y Combinator. The startup intends to create a decentralized exchange that will be protected from hacks, while still processing transactions on blockchain. Sparkswap started testing its mainnet on Jan. 2, 2019, which is driven by Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Its core technology, Atomic Swap, allows users …

Radar, the startup behind decentralized exchange Radar Relay that raised $10 million last year, announced that it will release new Lightning Network developer tools. The statement was made in a Medium post published on April 5. The developer tools, which will be released at the Lightning Network hackathon sponsored by the company, Boltathon, include a node configuration helper, a tool for opening channels and requesting channels, an invoice sandbox for test and an invoice decoder. The tools will be accompanied by setup tutorials, software recommendations and configuration guides for connecting through anonymity network Tor and accessing unreleased features. The tools …

Analysts have been anticipating the implications of the Internet of Things (IoT) for several years. However, there have been two main impediments to its success: capacity and security. But now, the introduction of a new technology could change that. This year, major carriers like AT&T and Verizon will be introducing 5G, the latest generation of cellular mobile communications. The 5G platform brings a high data rate, reduced latency, energy savings, cost reduction, higher system capacity and massive device connectivity, according to analysts. The combination of 5G and blockchain technology has the potential to unleash a surge of economic value. In …

Over the last few weeks, Bitcoin’s (BTC) second-layer scaling protocol, called the Lightning Network (LN), has gained a lot of traction, steadily proving to become a viable solution to BTC’s infamous scalability problem and even potential competitor to American payments giant Visa. Thanks to the community-driven Twitter experiment called “the Lightning Torch,” the LN has now been co-signed by Jack Dorsey, who says that integrating the protocol on Square’s popular Cash App is a question of “when, not if.” On top of raising awareness, the social media campaign has also shown what the LN technology is ready to offer in …

Blockchain development company Lightning Labs has announced the initial release of the Lightning Network offramp Lightning Loop in a post on its blog published on March 20. Per the announcement, the software provides a non-custodial way to receive funds through the Bitcoin (BTC) scalability solution Lightning Network, through on-chain settlement with the “Loop Out” function. The Loop Out function attempts to solve an issue which can affect Lightning Network users. The post explains that, after having received a certain amount via the Lightning Network, users can sometimes not receive more until he or she moves the funds on-chain, which can …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining and development company Bitfury has entered into a partnership with United States payments processor startup HadePay to allow its merchants to accept Lightning Network (LN) transactions. The news was announced in a blog post from Bitfury’s on March 14. HadePay implemented Bitfury’s Lightning Peach API to facilitate LN payments, which are significantly faster and cheaper than conventional Bitcoin transactions. The startup worked with Bitfury’s Lightning Peach team, a dedicated spin-off group of engineers focused on Lightning Network promotion. As a payments gateway, HadePay already lets clients accept crypto and fiat currencies as well as payments via various …

It's no secret that cryptocurrencies don't receive many plaudits in the mainstream media as reliable means of payment. Critics have even claimed that Bitcoin "sucks" as a payment mechanism. Yet, despite that blinkered skepticism, cryptocurrency payments actually grew last year. Payment processor BitPay reported a "record" $1 billion in transaction revenue in 2018, with its business-to-business (B2B) operations increasing by 255 percent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the use of cryptocurrencies in such economically unstable countries as Venezuela and India has surged, as people turn to the likes of Bitcoin and Dash to escape from increasingly worthless national currencies. …

Morgan Creek Digital founder Anthony Pompliano has suggested that major United States retailer Kroger should deploy the Lightning Network in its stores, following the brand’s decision to stop accepting Visa at some locations. According to Pompliano’s tweet from Mar. 3, the negotiations have already started. On Friday, Mar. 1, Kroger officially announced that its Smith's Food & Drug stores will not accept Visa cards starting Apr. 3 due to the high fees that company imposes on major retailers. "Visa has been misusing its position and charging retailers excessive fees for a long time," Kroger's chief financial officer Mike Schlotman said, …

Blockchain development company Blockstream has released a new version of its Bitcoin (BTC) scalability software, c-lightning, a post on the company’s blog reveals on March 1. C-lightning is an implementation of the off-chain Bitcoin scalability solution, the Lightning Network (LN), that is written in the C programming language. Per the announcement, this latest version, c-lightning 0.7, is the first major release in 8 months and brings performance enhancements, bug fixes, augmented privacy and new features, as well as improved documentation. The main new feature is plugin supports, which allow developers to extend the capabilities of the software with plugins written …

LinkedIn co-founder and former PayPal COO Reid Hoffman has become the latest participant in the Lightning Torch Bitcoin (BTC) transaction relay, Blockstream CEO Adam Back confirmed on social media on Feb. 26. Reid, whom Back appeared to choose due to his lead investment role in Blockstream, is the 224th person to “hold” the Torch, which began its journey around the Bitcoin community in mid-January. Each participant sends an invoice for the transaction via the Lightning Network, adding 10,000 satoshis to the balance before sending it forward. Twitter has become the platform of choice for informing the wider community about who …

Financial derivatives giant Fidelity Investments received and passed on the Lightning Torch, as revealed by tweet by the company sent on Feb. 22. Just like the Olympic torch, the Lightning Torch is being passed between members of the Lightning Network community. The trend first reportedly started when Twitter user and Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiast Hodlonaut sent 10,000 satoshis (the smallest, indivisible fractions of a Bitcoin) to another Lightning user, and the user added another 10,000 satoshis and passed it on. Fidelity passed the torch to the Harvard School Blockchain & Crypto Club in the wake of its upcoming dedicated conference. Previously, …

Privacy coin Beam (BEAM) has announced that it plans to introduce a Mimblewimble-compatible lightning network (LN), according to an paper published by Beam on Feb. 12. Beam’s main goal for implementing the Lightning Network, which would allow for a second-layer scaling solution for quick transfers on value off-chain, is to enhance the altcoin in commercial settings where payments would require quick confirmation. While Beam’s paper states that their transaction capacity is three times faster than that of Bitcoin’s (BTC), the paper notes that it is not at the same level as other major payment processors. There is no set timeline …