Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced a landmark decision to integrate the Lightning Network. In doing so, it is responding to growing user demand for faster and cheaper transactions in Bitcoin (BTC).
Lightning Network rolls up to Coinbase
Lightning Network, created in response to Bitcoin’s scalability challenges, is emerging as a key tool in competition with younger cryptocurrency projects that tempt with the promise of even faster and cheaper operations.
For a very long time, major cryptocurrency trading platforms such as Coinbase and Binance stayed away from implementing this tier two solution. It was argued that the integration of Lightning Network might not bring enough financial benefits to the exchanges themselves. However, this was not official information coming from representatives of the platforms, but only speculation from their users.
However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stood in opposition to this dominant narrative and confirmed the decision on the upcoming implementation. In an interview on the subject, he informed:
“Bitcoin is a pillar of the cryptocurrency world, and we are pleased to make our contribution to enabling faster and cheaper Bitcoin-based transactions. The integration process will take some time, so we ask for our users’ patience.”
Major platforms set to integrate with Bitcoin Lightning Network
The decision came after a month of intensive research, conducted by Coinbase protocol specialist Viktor Bunin. The cryptocurrency community reacted to this announcement with great satisfaction. With Coinbase’s integration with the Lightning Network, more users will be able to experience fast and efficient Bitcoin-based microtransactions.
On July 17, the Binance platform also announced its integration with the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Binance users making Bitcoin deposits or withdrawals can now use the new “LIGHTNING” option. In addition to it, there are other popular networks to choose from, such as BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), Bitcoin, BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2), BTC (SegWit) and Ethereum ERC-20.
Bitcoin will fulfill its role
It is worth recalling at this point that Bitcoin was created primarily as an alternative financial system, operating on a ‘peer to peer’ basis. Unfortunately, due to its often high transaction costs, as well as the time it takes to complete individual transactions, it initially failed to live up to the hype. The solution became the Lightning Network, which, being a layer two of the leading cryptocurrency, enabled much faster payments. Thus, Bitcoin could once again fulfill the role for which it was created from the beginning.
