U.S. payment API platform Strike has inked a partnership deal with crypto exchange service Bittrex to bring Lightning Network (LN) payments to over 200 countries. The move marks what could be an important milestone in the adoption of LN payment channels as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies become even more popular.
1 M Bittrex Users On-boarded to Strike LN Payment Platform
Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced the news of the Bittrex partnership via a blog post published on Wednesday (Jan. 6, 2021). According to the announcement, Strike’s collaboration with Bittrex will see the former’s LN payment rails now open to users from over 200 countries around the world.
As part of the partnership, Bittex’s over one million customer userbase will also be able to use Strike across a variety of supported stablecoins including Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) with additional support for fiat currencies like euro (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), and Swiss Francs (CHF).
For Strike, the Bittrex partnership is the latest milestone in the company’s efforts to disrupt the global remittance market using LN technology. The company initially launched in the U.S. back in 2020, rolling out its payday platform at the end of 2020.
Using real-time automated risk management protocols, Strike says it can use its LN infrastructure to facilitate cross-border money transfers across various currencies. According to Mallers, the service does not charge transaction fees.
The Strike CEO also revealed that the company is looking to issue Strike debit cards to its U.K. and European users before the end of Q2 2021. Also, Mallers says the company will add more fiat currency pairs once public beta testing of the current catalog is complete
Getting LN Utility up and Running
Upon its conception, LN was supposed to offer a scaling solution for Bitcoin, allowing faster transaction throughput thus creating greater utility for BTC, especially in the microtransactions arena. However, despite a rapid increase in the number of LN nodes in the early days, the protocol has come in for some criticism with detractors pointing to the difficulties encountered by merchants in using the layer-2 system.
However, as previously reported by BTCManager, LN sentiments may be turning positive with stakeholders optimistic of a bullish run amid growing Bitcoin adoption. Back in July, it was revealed that there was more Bitcoin wrapped in the Ethereum network than the amount of BTC held in the LN.
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