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Lightning Network Debuts On Blockstream Store As New Strides Announced

Wilma Woo | Jan 17, 2018 | 20:30

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Blockstream has implemented Lightning Network Bitcoin payments on its store as part of a continued roll-out of the revolutionary technology.

Store Tests Consumer Lightning Payments

In a blog post on Tuesday, developers Christian Becker and Rusty Russell introduced the Lightning Charge addition to its long-running Elements Project. This is designed in their words to “make it simple to build apps on top of Lightning.”

The pair explains:

Lightning Charge is a micropayment processing system written in node.js. It exposes the functionality of c-lightning through its REST API, which can be accessed through JavaScript and PHP libraries, both of which have also been released through the Elements Project. […] Together, these additions make it easy for developers to use c-lightning to create their own, independent web-payment infrastructures.

Presenting the Blockstream Store, which launched together with the post, Becker and Russell indicated a desire to implement practical use applications as a priority:

By offering an early demonstration of this cutting-edge technology, we hope to bring Lightning to life with real-world functionality, providing a way for you to test Lightning and become a part of the micropayment revolution.

They added that the tool was still in a “testing stage” and invited participants to report any bugs or unusual behavior.

Introducing #LightningCharge, a new micropayment processing system that makes it easy to build apps on top of #Lightning. It’s already powering the @Blockstream Store, an e-commerce site we're launching today! https://t.co/Sqmv4d2ze6⚡️#LightningNetwork #Layer2 #micropayments pic.twitter.com/18jZcAXY6o

— Blockstream (@Blockstream) January 17, 2018

Antonopoulos ‘Very Confident’ In Multifaceted Benefits

Reactions to the news were broadly positive on social media, with users continuing to support what is likely the decisive improvement to end high Bitcoin transaction fees and long confirmation times.

In a Q&A session in November, pioneering evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos confirmed his belief in Lightning’s ability to solve such issues, saying he was “very confident” that it would improve Bitcoin’s scalability and privacy.

In his opening remarks, Antonopoulos declared:

I’m not only confident that we will be able to achieve tremendous scaling with Lightning Networks, but I think we will also be able to achieve that in a scale-free manner, and we will also get much better security and privacy.

What do you think about the latest Lightning Network developments? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock