Lightning

Bitcoin could hit $10M in 9 years but more sidechains needed: Blockstream CEO

If Adam Back and Hal Finney’s $10 million price prediction were to come true, the BTC market cap would be approximately $200 trillion.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back believes the price of Bitcoin (BTC) could reach $10 million by the end of the sixth halvening in 2032, as long as Bitcoin layer-2 technology and wallet infrastructure improves.

In a Feb. 12 Twitter thread, the Bitcoin Core contributor explained to his 509,000 followers under what situation Hal Finney’s $10 million price prediction for BTC could come true.

Back noted that BTC has doubled in price year-on-year on average since 2013 and explained that if that trend continues, Bitcoin’s price will reach $10 million, along with a $200 trillion market cap, in around nine years’ time.

However, Back said that in order for that figure to be reached, improvements in Bitcoin layer-2 technologies and wallet infrastructure needs to be fast tracked to give time for these innovations to scale:

“i think things will get “interesting” over the next two halvings. and fast, we don’t have much time to scale tech. we need somewhere for the next billion users to own their own UTXO, their own keys, with censorship-resistant cold storage. without weakening main-chain security.”

Back said that it “probably means sidechains/drivechains as a tradeoff. more lightning optimization […] we don’t have much time as tech takes time to mature, wallets, interop, integration.”

Responding to a comment, Back said he believes Bitcoin adoption hasn’t reached the bottom of the S-curve yet, as only 1-2% of the world population has tapped into Bitcoin. He predicts more investors will begin to “stack” BTC into cold storage wallets:

“given volatility, i think #bitcoin can overshoot wildly and tap one of these $100-300 trillion market caps, correct and then regain a steadier adoption over time. i suspect people with average entry points, relative to then current price won’t have much incentive to sell in size.”

The CEO explained that part of that next wave of adoption may come from what he describes as “hyperbitcoinization spurts” — where people in hyperinflationary environments will “rush” to bitcoin:

Adam Back believes the inflation of fiat currencies may force people to buy and hold bitcoin. Source: Twitter.

Related: Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks Bitcoin over a game of Jenga

However, responding to another comment, Back also admitted that “we’ve utterly failed to financialize bitcoin” thus far. The cypherpunk suggested that Bitcoin could be used in mortgages where property is used as collateral and Bitcoin as the interest:

“the market in bitcoin-native financialisation is immature, almost untouched. bitcoin structured products, mortgages backed by real-estate but interest guaranteed by BTC, other products make bitcoin easier to use for more people, and match risk profiles. which creates more growth.”

Back added that in order to approach $10 million, BTC would also need to “displace” a significant proportion of store of value premiums in bonds, real estate, gold and stock portfolios.

At time of writing, BTC was priced at $21,800.

Nigerian innovator launches first active Bitcoin Lightning node in the country

A new Bitcoin lightning node in Nigeria could inspire individuals to take “control of their financial future,” node runner Megasley told Cointelegraph.

The Lightning Network has struck the earth in one of the most challenging operating environments. Lagos, the capital of Nigeria — Africa’s most populous country — welcomed a new Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) node this week, a vital step to better connect the continent to the layer-2 payments network that sits atop Bitcoin.

The node runs on an old laptop powered by a diesel generator, as Lagos regularly experiences energy and electricity blackouts.

Megasley’s diesel generator and laptop running the node. Source: Megasley 

In a discussion with Cointelegraph, Megasley, who operates the first Nigerian Lightning node of 2023 and the first active Lightning node in the country (other nodes are dormant), shared his vision for bringing instant, low-cost payments to Africa thanks to the LN.

”Light takes 50 milliseconds to cross the earth. This is quick, but with many hops, these milliseconds can add up. And when you’re standing at a point of sale waiting for your payment to clear, it can be frustrating.”

Megasley explained his wish for Africans to have payments that are instant and as close to free as possible. “If a Nigerian Bitcoiner and a Nigerian retailer are both connected to a node in Nigeria, it will give them the best Lightning experience,” Megasley added.

According to the explorer services Mempool and Amboss, the operator is currently the only active node on the map in Nigeria. By spinning up the node, the operator aims to make Lightning payments as accessible as possible to Africans.

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When asked about the importance of building out an extensive network of nodes across the globe to facilitate Bitcoin payments, the node runner explained, “If Bitcoin is to succeed, it must become a better, easier, faster medium of exchange than the incumbents. To get there, we need to build out an extensive network of nodes across the globe to facilitate these payments.”

Megasley also touched on Bitcoin  (BTC) price volatility and its perception in Africa: “People talk about the problem of volatility, but this is nothing when you live in a place where your money could easily lose half its value in a year.”

“Africa has rotten money controlled by rotten people, and this is why we need Bitcoin. We will take the power of money away from them so that the enormous potential of the African people can thrive.”

Indeed, there has been a surge in Bitcoin adoption among the countries that use the Central African franc, bolstered by Bitcoin conferences and forums in Senegal and Ghana. Although Nigeria has shown promising signs of Bitcoin adoption, such as legal tender discussion, the legacy financial system has imposed further restrictions in 2023.

For example, Nigerians will only be allowed to withdraw $44 dollars per week per individual and a maximum of $11,000 for businesses in 2023, as per the government’s efforts to phase out cash. As a reminder, Bitcoin has no limits or restrictions for its use. To transact freely on the Bitcoin network, users require only a phone and an internet connection.

Related: Bitcoin, Sango Coin and the Central African Republic

The establishment of a Bitcoin Lightning node in Nigeria is a significant step toward increasing accessibility and adoption of the cryptocurrency in the country and the continent as a whole. Ultimately, Megasley hopes to empower individuals and businesses in Africa to take control of their financial future.

Crowdfunding gets leg up from Lightning Addresses on Bitcoin

Lightning Addresses allow individuals to crowdfund on Bitcoin at the speed of the Lightning Network and without a node.

The Lightning Network strikes again. In a small yet significant development for Bitcoin (BTC), a new type of BTC address has been introduced: the “Lightning Address.” These unique identifiers are specifically designed for use on the Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment protocol that operates on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.

A user-friendly addition to ways in which Bitcoin users can send, receive and even raise money, Lightning addresses can be custodial, or users can connect to their own nodes. Crowdfunding is among the most popular real-world use for Lightning Addresses.

Cointelegraph spoke to MetaMick, the chief executive officer of Geyser Fund, and Stelios Rammos, CTO, to better understand how to use Lighting Addresses and why crowdfunding is a low-hanging fruit for this technology. Geyser Fund is a crowdfunding platform similar to GoFundme but using Bitcoin and Lightning.

Lightning Addresses are “Email-like identifiers that make it possible for users to send value to each other via lightning. They are easy to memorize and are reusable (unlike bolt11 lightning addresses),” explained MetaMick, the chief technology officer of Geyser Fund. Cointelegraph tried out the service and managed to raise money in no time:

First developed by Andre Neves and Fiatjaf (the developer behind Nostr), Lightning wallet addresses can be created on custodial solutions such as Wallet of Satoshi, CoinCorner or BitRefill, and quickly synced to Geyser Fund:

“You just link up your wallet to Geyser, and all donations go through directly in your wallet.”

Crowdfunding has long been an area of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency interest. Thanks to Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant and self-sovereign properties, it is one of the most efficient ways of sending money online.

There are over 20 plug and play Lightning Wallet address types available. Source: Geyser

The first widespread use case for using Bitcoin to raise money was the 2011 Wikileaks campaign, where Julian Assange raised thousands of Bitcoin when access to banking services was cut off.  More recently, the Canadian Trucker Protests used Bitcoin when the Canadian government shut down USD-based crowdfunding solutions; it was a similar story with protestors in Nigeria.

However, Lightning Addresses take funding a step forward in terms of both speed and see of use. Transactions on the Lightning Network can be completed almost instantly, compared to the 10-minute average for regular Bitcoin transactions. Lightning is ideal for small frequent payments, such as those made in brick-and-mortar stores, or for sending small donations to creators around the world.

And thanks to Lightning Addresses, Bitcoin users can now raise money even quicker and with a straightforward user experience. Plus, Geyser avoids acting as a custodian as all funds are forwarded directly to creators’ Lightning Addresses thanks to “hodl invoices.” The result is a trustless and non-custodial process, a key tenet of Bitcoin philosophy.

Related: Not medical advice: Bitcoiner implants Lightning chip to make BTC payments by hand

Ultimately, while there are still some hurdles to overcome with the Lightning Network, such as the need for more user-friendly wallets and better integration with existing payment systems, it is clear that the Lightning Network has the potential to revolutionize the way payments are made, and money is raised online.

As more users adopt the Lightning Network and take advantage of the benefits of these new addresses, it is possible that we will see a significant shift toward more efficient, cost-effective, and censorship-resistant payments online.

Not medical advice: Bitcoiner implants Lightning chip to make BTC payments by hand

A Bitcoiner has literally taken the Lightning Network into his own hands, installing a tiny payment chip into his hands to make NFC contactless payments.

The Lightning Network continues to shock the Bitcoin (BTC) community. A swiss IT Professional called F418 (not his real name) surgically implanted a Lightning-enabled chip into his left hand to make Lightning Network (LN) payments.

An X-Ray demonstration of the chip implanted into F418’s hand. Source: Youtube

Speaking with Cointelegraph, F418 said he experimented with body modification and LN payments for fun. He does not recommend that Bitcoin enthusiasts take the layer-2 payments network, the LN, into their own hands as he did. “The use is just to show that it is possible and you can do stuff like that.” He added that most people carry cards, it’s just his hand has the wow factor:

“It’s funny if you are doing a presentation as I sometimes do presentations about payments and talk to people that are working in banks, and they make ‘Big Eyes’ if they see that [my hand]. You don’t need to have the implant.”

Cointelegraph first met with F418 in his home country of Switzerland at the LN-friendly Plan B Lugano Conference. His attempts to pay failed as the first implant F418 used was “Defective.” Undeterred, F418 visited a medical professional to surgically remove the implant before trying again.

The second attempt succeeded. The chip sits neatly in his left hand and can now make LN payments–without reaching for a Bolt Card or a smartphone. But does it hurt, Cointelegraph asked. “I don’t feel anything–even when I go to the gym,” he replied.

F418 taps his hand on the back of his phone to pay for two beers and some crisps. Source: Youtube

Nonetheless, F418 brings up certain risks to the procedure. While the process is medically safe, “The only problem with the implants is that you can not make them really safe. It’s not the same security as the bolt card–you can only do LNURL withdraw; it’s not safe.” 

Plus, if you make a mistake during the implantation process, it’s not a good idea to take the chip in and out of the body. It could cause harm or infection, F418 explained, so it’s best to get it the right the first time.

In brief, the NFC chip works identically implanted in F418’s hand, enabling him to make LN payments without the need for a physical device such as a smartphone or card. He can simply hold his hand near a compatible NFC reader to initiate a payment. It’s arguably the most convenient Bitcoin payment, allowing for quick and easy transactions without the need for any additional equipment.

NFC, or Near Field Communication technology use cases have bubbled up in the Bitcoin world. Indeed, NFC payments over the LN have surged in popularity since the introduction of the Bolt Card, first trialed over lunch on the Isle of Man, and now available in “Bitcoin Country,” or El Salvador.

F148 shows the tiny raised insert of the chip to Cointelegraph during a call. Source: Google Meet

It’s straightforward to set up an NFC card, sticker or even a sock to work for payments (see below Twitter video). However, it’s worth noting that F418’s NFC implant into a human is the first of its kind. F418 has made the entire process open-source and accessible–including health warnings–on GitHub. He has called the process “Lightning Paw.”

The LN is a second-layer payment protocol that operates on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It allows for near-instant and near-free transactions by enabling users to make multiple payments without having to wait for the transactions to be confirmed on the blockchain. In essence, the LN creates a network of payment channels between users, allowing them to transact directly without the need for each transaction to be recorded on the blockchain.

Related: Subway accepts Bitcoin, so users can get a sandwich on the Lightning Network

As for F418, he continues to tinker with Bitcoin and, increasingly, the Lightning Network. IT professional and extreme sports enthusiast by day, he’s a Bitcoin hobbyist “who likes to try stupid stuff” by night. He joins thousands of Bitcoin hobbyists around the world who continue to build on Bitcoin despite the brutal bear market. Speaking from home in Switzerland, he told Cointelegraph:

“If you have an open network where everyone can do innovative things; it will always have the advantage of a closed system that only a couple of people can work on it.”

Just don’t try this at home, anon.

Bitcoin advocate dishes out sats over Lightning Network to raise BTC awareness

A Twitter user from the United Kingdom spent hours sending micropayments to strangers on the internet to demonstrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

A Bitcoin (BTC) advocate on Twitter known by the name of ShireHodl, or simply Shire, sent over 110 micropayments to first-time Bitcoin Lightning users in response to Michael Saylor’s Lightning Network poll. 

Shire asked those new to Lightning to download a Lightning wallet from the App Store or Google Play Store and to send him a QR code invoice. To pay the invoice, Shire scanned the code with his camera, and the Bitcoin Lightning Network did the rest. In the tweet, Shire said he’d send 1,000 sats to as many people as he can be bothered to before going to sleep.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Shire said that he has “sent out about 110 payments of 1000 sats.” Sats are short for satoshis, the smallest Bitcoin denomination. There are 100 million satoshis in 1 Bitcoin. Shire said:

“It’s not much, maybe $20 in total, but the total fee is less than a penny. Using a credit card or debit card, the fees would have been more than the value transferred, so it would have been impossible.”

In all, Shire sent over 110 micropayments — effectively onboarding 110 new users to the Lightning Network. The business owner took Bitcoin Lightning’s adoption into his own hands because he recognized that many Bitcoin users had not used Lightning before.

Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Microstrategy, asked over 60,000 people if they had used Bitcoin Lightning in a poll:

Source: Twitter

More than 60,000 people replied, with the results inspiring Shire to take action. He told Cointelegraph, “60% of respondents in his poll said they have never used a Lightning wallet, so this was a small incentive to give it a go.”

“Also, I knew the fees would be minuscule and that people taking part would be all over the world, demonstrating how LN is borderless and will enable micropayments for all kinds of future applications.”

Indeed, the Lightning Network has recently been used to facilitate cross-border payments across Africa.

Related: Bitcoin without internet: SMS service allows sending BTC with a text

Shire, a Bitcoin maximalist, added that his experiment and onboarding masterclass only works with BTC: “This can’t be done with shitcoins. […] Fees are higher, settlement takes longer.”

“You need instant settlement on an asset with deep liquidity to be able to scale this to the world and its applications. Only Bitcoin is capable of fulfilling this role.”

Shire plans to continue sending satoshis over Lightning to demonstrate that Bitcoin might become global money someday.

Strike partners with Bitnob to facilitate cross-border payments into Africa

On stage at AfroBitcoin, Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced plans to improve remittance payments into Africa thanks to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

The Lightning Network has struck Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. During a conference in Ghana, Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced that the Bitcoin (BTC) payments company has partnered with the mobile app Bitnob to facilitate payments into Africa. 

Mallers made the announcement on stage at AfroBitcoin, a Bitcoin conference in Ghana’s capital city of Accra. He stood alongside Bernard Farah, the Nigerian CEO of Bitnob, following a short presentation on how it works.

Money transfers into Africa take advantage of the Lightning Network, the layer-2 payments network built atop Bitcoin. The feature is called “Send Globally,” and it enables instant, low-cost payments to Africa.

Diagram of the money transfer from Alice in Nigeria to Bob in the United States. Source: Facebook

The feature does not require people to use Bitcoin themselves, Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah explained on stage. The no-transaction-fee feature is currently available to Americans sending funds to Africans in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. By comparison, remittance services such as Wise take a small commission, while Western Union can charge upward of 10% for money transfers.

Dollar payments are instantly converted to Nigerian naira, Ghanaian cedi or Kenyan shillings and are deposited directly into a recipient’s bank account, mobile money wallet or Bitnob account.

Solving cross-border payments into Africa using Bitcoin would be a major boost to local economies. In Nigeria alone, $17.2 billion was sent in remittances to the country in 2020. However, according to World Bank data, “for every $200 sent in 2020, it cost the sender $17.8 (8.9 %).” That equates to roughly $1.5 billion lost in fees, or roughly the gross domestic product of Samoa.

If Nigeria were to eliminate remittance fees by using Bitcoin payment rails, Nigerians across the country would benefit financially. In Kenya and Ghana, the situation is similar. Thousands of Ghanaians and Kenyans live in the United States and regularly send money overseas. Crypto in Africa has surged in recent years, and remittance is one of the many reasons why. 

Related: Subway accepts Bitcoin, so users can get a sandwich on the Lightning Network

Mallers compared the instant peer-to-peer payment service to PayPal’s Venmo app, which allows rapid, frictionless payments between United States customers. Mallers said the Lightning Network has “just achieved dollars to Naira, Naira to dollars.”

The advancement is currently only available to Americans sending money to those living in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria–English-speaking countries in Africa, although the rollout is set to continue across Africa.

This story is developing and will be updated with new info.

Subway accepts Bitcoin, so users can get a sandwich on the Lightning Network

The largest franchise in the world, Subway, is testing out the Lightning Network layer-2 Bitcoin payments solution and receiving encouraging results in Berlin, Germany.

No, it’s not Groundhog Day. Subway is accepting Bitcoin (BTC), again — but this time it’s using the fast, nearly free Bitcoin Lightning Network.

The world’s largest franchise by number of restaurants is trialing Bitcoin payments at three Subways in Germany’s capital, Berlin. Subway first experimented with Bitcoin almost 13 years ago in Moscow, Russia. 

Over the past few months, Daniel Hinze, the Berlin Subway franchise owner, recorded over 120 Bitcoin transactions. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Hinze explained his desire “to help Bitcoin become money.”

“Five years ago, I started to deal with cryptocurrencies; and in the last two years, I have dealt very intensively with the topic of Bitcoin. With that in mind, I’ve decided that [Bitcoin] could be the better money system.”

Bitcoin is not a popular means of exchange in Europe, despite the efforts of merchants, retailers and even Lightning-enabled conferences. Hinze has encouraged Bitcoin payments by offering a 10% discount on all footlongs, meatball marinaras and sucookies paid for with BTC.

To kick off the campaign, Hinze offered a 50% discount on all Bitcoin payments for one week:

“Around the week, there was, of course, extremely high demand. Our three restaurants were frequently visited by people who liked to pay with Bitcoin.”

German-speaking social media was buoyed by Subway buys as the hashtag #usingBitcoin took over. Hinze partnered with Lipa, a Swiss-based Bitcoin company, to enable an easy-to-use point-of-sale solution.

Bastien Feder, CEO of Lipa, told Cointelegraph that its mission is to make Bitcoin “basically irresistible to use because Bitcoin is currency.” Lipa kitted out the Subways with merchant devices that allow customers to quickly scan a Lightning-enabled QR code that allows for fast, frictionless, low-cost payments.

Lipa charges merchants 1% for the service, as opposed to Visa or Mastercard payment rails, which charge double or more. Feder explained:

“It’s 2.5% to 4% depending on the contract from the merchant. If it’s a business card, there’s 0.5% on top of that. […] And if it’s a foreign business credit card, you pay up to 7%, and you don’t know until the end of the month.”

The experience of paying over the LN differs greatly from when Subway franchises first accepted Bitcoin payments in 2014. Before the arrival of the LN, customers would have to wait for around for several minutes.

Miners would mint the next block on the blockchain, with the transaction confirmed by Bitcoin nodes around the world. The process was inconvenient for retail payments due to the wait time as well as the sometimes high fees. With the LN, customers enjoy faster settlement times than Visa or Mastercard and lower fees thanks to a peer-to-peer network of payments.

Nonetheless, due to the fact that Bitcoin has for most of its history been a speculative vehicle — sparing a few use cases for purchasing — encouraging Bitcoiners to spend BTC can be a challenge.

Nonetheless, retail examples are popping up, such as in Berlin or San Salvador. Nicolas Burtey, CEO of Galoy Money, told Cointelegraph that the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador was the tipping point for the Lightning Network. He joked that the Bitcoin Law “should have actually been called the Lightning Law!”

Related: McDonald’s, pizza and coffee paid in Bitcoin: The Plan B for crypto payments

Lipa and Hinze expect a steady increase in demand for Bitcoin payments. Feder told Cointelegraph that it’s due in large part because of the ”exponentially rising Bitcoin community in Germany, in Switzerland, basically all over the world.”

Indeed, the LN is enabling communities keen to trade, from Senegal to Guatemala and Switzerland. Hinze told Cointelegraph that for the moment, the Subway restaurant only accepts the world’s most recognizable currency, as he and his business partners “firmly believe in Bitcoin.”

CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network

There is a limit of $999 every seven days for BTC transactions on the Lightning Network.

According to a new page added to its support section on Oct. 25, Cash App — a mobile phone payment processing app created by Block Inc. — has added support for transactions via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The new feature allows Cash App users to send and receive Bitcoin (BTC) on the faster, more efficient layer-2 protocol. Lightning is ideal for small transactions, with near-instant processing times, compared with the minutes to hours required on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

Cash App had already supported Bitcoin transactions on the Lightning Network in a limited capacity, with users limited to paying for invoices via scanning Lightning QR codes. Now, all Cash App transactions involving QR codes will default through Lightning unless otherwise specified. This new feature has a transaction limit of $999 every seven days and is only available to United States customers, excluding residents of New York state.

Cash App first implemented BTC trading in 2018 and soon became immensely popular in the U.S. and United Kingdom for Bitcoin transactions. Last year, 81% of the app’s $12.3 billion in revenue came from Bitcoin. The app has more than 44 million monthly active users. 

Users can deposit $10,000 worth of Bitcoin every seven days and are provided a tax form for in-app accounting purposes. It is also possible to automatically invest a portion or all of one’s direct deposit into Bitcoin by using the “Paid in Bitcoin” feature with no fees. Otherwise, regular transaction fees are typically around 2%.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the Lightning Network currently has around 87,000 payment channels and 4,570 BTC locked in. However, adoption has been somewhat slow, with the number of coins on Lightning representing a tiny fraction of the 19 million BTC currently in circulation. 


Shopify users get their hands on Tezos NFTs with new partnership

The Tezos NFT ecosystem gained a lot of traction over the past year due to its low cost of minting and energy efficiency.

The Tezos blockchain partnered with Web3 automation platform Taco to allow Shopify users to access Tezos nonfungible tokens (NFTs) via Taco’s NFT loyalty program. The e-commerce giant has established itself as a growing destination for brands looking for Web3 engagements.

TheTaco app allows brands to integrate Web3 solutions such as NFTs to increase engagement with customers and e-commerce platforms such as Shopify use Taco app plugins to offer these services to their merchants.

The NFT loyalty programs aid brands in strengthening their bonds with consumers, boosting customer engagement and retention. The latest integration of Tezos NFTs would help the blockchain utilize its NFTs to reward devoted customers with special offers, discounts and experiences.

With the latest integration of Tezos into the Taco app, Shopify merchants everywhere now have a new method to interact with customers and connect to the expanding Tezos NFT community.

Earlier in June, Shopify announced a new reward system called Tokengate under its connect-to-consumer initiative. Token gate allowed select merchant partners to roll out exclusive goods for NFT stakeholders. The e-commerce giant was among the first to integrate Bitcoin and Lightning payments on its platform.

Related: Man United onboards Tezos as its official Web3 and training kit partner

Tezos’ energy-efficient architecture, added to its affordable NFT minting and low transaction fees, has drawn a diverse NFT community of artists, collectors and builders from all around the world. The high energy efficiency of Tezos has made it the go-to platform for NFT integration, for example, gaming giant Ubisoft integrated Tezos NFTs for its gaming rewards toward the end of 2021.

Tezos, a proof-of-stake blockchain registered a significant bump in on-chain activity and smart contract transactions thanks to a rising NFT market. The platform registered 50,000 transactions per day in the first quarter of 2022 from less than 10,000 per day in January 2021.

Tap-to-pay Bitcoin Lightning Bolt cards strike El Salvador

CoinCorner, a Bitcoin Lightning-based card payment service provider, is looking to install NFC card readers across El Salvador to offer a seamless retail BTC experience.

El Salvador-based Bitcoin (BTC) holders could soon be able to spend their BTC using the “tap-to-pay” feature wherever the near-field communication services (NFC) card readers are available. The cardless pay service would be utilizing the Lightning Network (LN) to facilitate retail BTC transactions.

Contactless card payments are quite popular in the current fast-paced world, and with the help of LN, these services can now be utilized by BTC holders as well. The Bitcoin Lightning services are being introduced in El Salvador by CoinCorner, which has, in turn, partnered with IBEX, a lightning infrastructure services company, to add NFC support across businesses in the country.

The Bolt Card, which is a Lighting payment card, was launched on Oct. 12. CoinCorner said that the motivation for its expansion in the Central American nation, apart from its BTC legal tender, was a barrage of reports about poor user experience that the firm hopes to resolve.

Bitcoin LN is a layer-2 scalability infrastructure that allows for retail usage and expenditure of BTC in day-to-day life at a low cost and insistent transaction rate. The introduction of tap-to-pay card payment would make way for a seamless BTC user experience in the country, which the firm hopes would also enhance the country’s BTC usage.

Related: El Salvador Bitcoin wallet shows ‘strong sign of adoption,’ exec says

El Salvador became the first country to make BTC a legal tender in September 2021. At the time, President Nayib Bukele led government hoped that the adoption would help the country’s majority unbanked population to gain monetary independence. Within four months of adopting BTC, the country onboarded 4 million users on its government-backed Bitcoin wallet.

The BTC wallets saw $52 million in remittances in the first two quarters of 2022. With the introduction of Lightning-based payments in the country, the retail payment sector could see a bump in BTC use.