Leading payment service provider, Cash App announced bringing Bitcoin’s Lightning Network into its fold thus enabling U.S. users to send bitcoin to anyone in the world. Although an official announcement from Cash App is yet to come, the payment app revealed that the rollout is expected to be complete over the coming weeks, targeting all U.S. Cash App customers.
The integration once activated will allow Cash App users to be able to send bitcoin anywhere in the world to any external compatible wallet, including those for family or friends or a self-managed wallet, for example, Chivo Wallet, BlueWallet, or Muun Wallet. In addition to that, customers will also be able to send bitcoin to any merchant that accepts Lightning Network payments, with zero fees.
As per sources, the Lightning Network’s support in Cash App would help empower the burgeoning creator economy, as fans could send BTC to express their support for an individual creator or cause if they accepted Lightning payments. Explaining the benefits, Cash App noted that
“Typical Bitcoin network transactions can take some time to process and see higher fees. But the Lightning Network will still benefit from the blockchain’s technology and decentralization, as the transactions taking place on the network are later consolidated and recorded to the main Bitcoin blockchain.”
Bitcoin’s LN growing adoption
Promoting Bitcoin adoption, Cash App previously offered a service that allowed users to gift BTC and stocks over the holiday season. It enabled users to send a minimum of $1 worth of BTC without the requirement to own the assets beforehand. However, Cash App is not the only one adding the feature.
On 18th January 2022, Argentina-based mobile wallet firm Belo announced that it has joined hands with infrastructure provider OpenNode to facilitate Lightning Network to provide access to its users. Julie Landrum, OpenNode’s Head of Growth, stated that the deal allows millions of people in South America to conduct faster Bitcoin transactions.
With its layer-2 solution, the LN aims to offer tremendous scalability and cheap transaction costs. It operates by taking transactions away from the main chain and placing them into peer-to-peer “payment channels” between two parties, such as a buyer and a coffee shop. Once the channel is established, it claims to handle an infinite number of transactions in real-time.