Coinbase, one of the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges, is moving to add support for Lightning Network on its trading platform. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, confirmed that the exchange was looking into the best ways to achieve this task, reaffirming his support for bitcoin payments.
Coinbase Mulls Adding Support for Lightning Network
Coinbase, the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has given an update about the possible integration of Lightning Network operations on its platforms. The Lightning Network is a second-layer scaling protocol for Bitcoin, with the aim of allowing users to benefit from almost real-time transaction times and low fees.
Answering a post where former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey criticized him for ignoring Bitcoin and the Lightning Network in the payments arena, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated:
We’re looking into how to best add Lightning. It’s non-trivial, but I think worth doing. I’m all for payments taking off in Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Armstrong stated that Coinbase had “onboarded more people to Bitcoin than probably any company in the world,” inviting Dorsey to collaborate on this task.
However, in the exchange, Dorsey called for putting more resources behind Coinbase’s “original focus on Bitcoin and layer two technologies.” He concluded:
We want an open protocol for money transmission for the internet that’s not controlled by a single individual, company, or government.
While Armstrong did not give any dates regarding the implementation of Lightning, Victor Bunin, a protocol specialist at the exchange, reported he was at the helm of this task while asking for “insights on lift to add support, UX flows, open source tooling, service providers, and edge cases.”
A Non-Trivial Task
Armstrong referred to bringing Lightning Network support to Coinbase’s platform as a “non-trivial task,” indicating the process implied some degree of complication. Other cryptocurrency builders have recently voiced their own challenges regarding building on Lightning, criticizing the difficulty behind it.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, an exchange that added support for Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals recently, stated that integrating tech to support the layer 2 (L2) was “more complicated” than it might appear due to the use of on-demand invoices.
Also, Lightspark CEO David Marcus referred to the issue, stating that building on top of Lightning Network was “likely at least 5x harder than building with other protocols,” referring to the experience as “incredibly complex and hard.”
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