Mexican financial and retailing corporation Grupo Elektra is all set to integrate support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, according to its owner and businessman, Ricardo Salinas Pliego.
Pliego, who happens to be the third richest person in Mexico and leads one of the biggest conglomerates in the Latin American country with an estimated net worth of $15.4 billion, has been a proponent of Bitcoin [BTC]. Last November, he had revealed investing 10% of his portfolio in the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
More recently, the billionaire declared his intention that his bank, Banco Azteca, was in the process of becoming the first in the country to accept Bitcoin. However, Mexico’s central bank quickly shot down Pliego’s plans. It issued a statement saying cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are not legal tender and are prohibited from being used in the country’s financial system.
Bitcoin Lightning Network Growth
Nevertheless, Pliego’s latest announcement comes days after reports about the social network giant Twitter getting closer to integrating the Bitcoin lightning network for micropayments made rounds. The platform is currently in a testing phase for the operating system iOS Beta, according to the reports. The main aim behind this move is to facilitate a whole new payment option for users, alongside the already existing Cash App, Bandcamp, Patreon, Venmo, and PayPal, to reward content creators through the freshly launched feature “Tip Jar”.
Lightning Network is a second layer technology that has been ramping up BTC transactions since early 2018, thereby bolstering the adoption of the cryptocurrency. A brainchild of Lightning Labs, LN was proposed as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem. Three years ago, it had secured a whopping $2.5 million in seed funding that saw the participation of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, among others.
CoinShares investment strategist James Butterfill had earlier stated,
“Lightning is much more secure than Visa, and could do more transactions than Visa.”