Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world, in terms of market cap. But until now, it has been difficult to build anything on the protocol, unlike that of the Ethereum blockchain. Today, apart from the development of BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin network, several other innovations are coming into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Elizabeth Stark, the CEO and Founder of Lightning Labs revealed at the Bitcoin and Lightning for Corporation event that amongst the numerous proposals in the Lightning Labs community, they are working on bitcoinizing the dollar. The aim is to bring “the dollar to bitcoin and lightning” which will enable USD stablecoins to be launched on the Bitcoin network.
Lightning Labs is a company that develops infrastructure for the Lightning Network, a layer-2 scaling solution for Bitcoin. The company was founded in 2016 by Elizabeth Stark, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Alex Bosworth. Lightning Labs provides a number of products and services for developers and businesses that want to use the Lightning Network.
These products include Lightning Network Daemon, a software development kit (SDK) that makes it easy to build applications that use the Lightning Network; Lightning Loop, a service that provides an on-off ramp between the Lightning Network and the Bitcoin blockchain; and Lightning Development Kit, a set of tools that make it easy to build Lightning Network applications for mobile devices.
She noted that the advantage is that the project will use “the security of the Bitcoin blockchain and then you move it into lightning in Layer Two” for ease of transaction. When this happens, users will have access to “instant high volume, extremely low-fee dollar transactions.”
In comparison with what Visa and Mastercard are doing in terms of fees and speed, this will be far better, the founder added. “All of a sudden you can send dollars instantly globally for fees that are 99% lower than the traditional card networks.”
Mobile money and Bitcoin
She went on to tell the audience that this service will be available for mobile users. Therefore, people and businesses will have access to send and receive money at incredibly lower fees and as fast as possible. It’s like replacing the credit card networks, she noted.
In essence, when we bitcoinizing dollars, we will make “global instant bitcoin transaction” possible, which in effect raises bitcoin “to be this global routing currency,” Elizabeth highlighted. The other ripple effect is that it will introduce us to the next generation of payment as the Internet of money becomes more real.
Advice for corporate developers on Lightning
The bear market is the best time to build and engage. She added that while there are many ways for corporate developers to work with Lightning Network, developers can start with the tools Lightning Labs has created.
The CEO noted that the resources on their website include the developer documentation, then the several APIs for liquidity, and the terminal tool for devs and node operators. With the help of the terminal tools, node operators “can optimize their node and do a number of other things around their channels and liquidity and rebalancing.”
Other options she mentioned are devs working with projects such as River Lightning Services, which is “a custodial option” where users work with them to process transactions on Lightning Network. Voltage is another project she listed that offers hosting services for nodes on the Lightning Network.
Breez wallet, Cash App, and video tutorials on the internet as well as in the Lightning Labs community are great sources of materials, she added. “People make videos, they write guides, no one pays them to do this. They do it because they love the technology and they’re so passionate about it and that has the spirit of the early internet.”
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