Major cryptocurrencycurrency exchange Coinbase, under the leadership of former PayPal president David Marcus, has formed a new agreement with Lightspark, which will soon bring Bitcoin Lightning to its platform.
In his announcement, CEO Brian Armstrong said that the connection will take place “soon,” enabling Coinbase users to transact Bitcoin more quickly and affordably.
Founded in 2022, Lightspark’s primary goal is to make managing Lightning nodes easier. They created an AI-based engine called Lightspark Predict, which optimizes liquidity and routing to increase transaction success rates.
With an average transaction amount of $11.84, 308,000 transactions in October of last year saw a 99.7% Lightning payment success rate, according to banking company River that specializes in Bitcoin. In September, estimates of the number of active Lightning users ranged from 279,000 to 1.1 million.
Bitcoin Lightning was incorporated by Coinbase’s rival Binance in July, showcasing the platform’s ubiquity in Lugano, Switzerland; El Zonte, also known as “Bitcoin Beach” in El Salvador; and Utiva, also known as “Bitcoin Jungle,” in Costa Rica.
Although some people, such as Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, think that Bitcoin is better used as a store of value, Lightning’s growth shows that Bitcoin is being used for purposes other than just investments.
