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Cryptocurrency payment gateway Data Mynt Inc. on Tuesday announced support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Data Mynt will facilitate payments to and from all Lightning Network-enabled wallets, such as Block Inc.’s Cash App and Strike.
The Data Mynt gateway, which says it is agnostic as to wallet, asset, and blockchain, enables merchants, funds, and enterprises to expand payment options for their crypto customers, investments, and partners. The gateway also reduces payment-processing costs and eliminates friction such as chargebacks and crypto price volatility, the company says.
The Lightning Network was developed as a way to speed Bitcoin transactions. These became notoriously slow compared to other cryptocurrency transactions as volume on the Bitcoin blockchain grew, causing congestion and exacting a price in confirmation times and transaction cost.
The Lightning Network, which is part of a newer class of crypto technologies known as so-called layer 2 blockchains, speeds Bitcoin transactions by moving them off the main blockchain to the Lightning Network’s layer 2 blockchain. In this way, the core Bitcoin blockchain, or layer 1, can move faster and more cost efficiently. Parent Lightning Labs likens the network’s technology for speeding Bitcoin transactions to a high occupancy vehicle lane on an expressway.
Twitter, for example, leverages the Lightning Network to allow users to send and receive Bitcoin payments to other Twitter accounts instantly and for free using a payments app called Strike, which uses the Bitcoin blockchain to send and receive money.
“Every day, Bitcoin is less about a store of value and, arguably, the currency-of-choice for day-to-day utility,” Data Mynt chief executive Alex Christian says in a prepared statement. “The Lightning Network is the key to unlocking the user experience and scalability for [Bitcoin] payments that the entire world was waiting for.”
Data Mynt chief executive and co-founder Elizabeth Stark goes even farther, saying the company’s support of the Lightning Network will help bring Bitcoin to the next billion people around the world.
