Lightning

The browser extension to transfer money universally at the speed of light!

The Lightning Network is a second-layer protocol that was built as an extension of the Bitcoin blockchain. It enables instant micro-payments and better performance for permission-less distributed ledgers using a network of lightning nodes.

By using payment channels for off-chain processing, cryptocurrency users can transact more efficiently at lower cost and at the speed of light with no waiting time for blockchain confirmations. As a result, the Lightning Network overcomes the transmission delay on the bitcoin blockchain and serves as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem. It accelerates transactions off-chain to bridge the time required for on-chain confirmations in the network. Ultimately, lightning payments speed up transfer times but yet cater to the need for data privacy while offering the security of a public blockchain.

The advantages of our lightning solution can be counted on the fingers of one hand: 

• Accept micro-transactions and convert bitcoin to fiat instantly at the point of sale to avoid price volatility.
• Streaming money in real-time to fluidify liquid funds and enhance the nature of digital cash flow forever.
• Connect your crypto wallet with a secure lightning daemon and a regulated OTC exchange account.
• Scale the Bitcoin blockchain to instant payments bringing crypto and fiat together at peak velocity.
• Try next-layer blockchain payments through a lightning node powered by a licensed processor. 

The LNP21-browser extension gives access to the lightning nodes of Payment21.com. Our infrastructure is backed by a sophisticated architecture utilizing blockchain technologies including smart contracts, oracles, and decentralized applications (Dapp). Together, our toolbox provides liquidity for the growth of the Lightning Network and assists users in maintaining inbound capacity. As one of the pioneers in the industry, we support the digital cash ecosystem by connecting P2P-participants with both, non-custodian hubs and permission-based custody wallets. 

Tailored products and services complementing the LN

Our AML/KYC-compliant gateway provides a comprehensive suite of products and services for merchants and traders that offers easy, fast, and low-cost processing of bitcoin transactions on-chain and off-chain. We enable users to convert digital currency to fiat and vice versa within a fraction of a second. With our solutions, you'll be able to conveniently add support for Lightning Network bitcoin payments and start enjoying the benefits of accepting the planet's most popular cryptocurrency.

Lightning fills the gap between cryptographic trust and institutional trust

Among the few regulated companies in the bitcoin world, our business is known to be a watchtower for compliance and data protection alike. Of course, our thundering voice for legitimacy always keeps the spirit of the Bitcoin community in mind. We believe that independence, self-responsibility, commercial freedom, fair competition, data sovereignty, and privacy represent basic rights and duties that do not necessarily contradict with reasonable checks and balances - be it in a technical, individual or legal context. Let`s face it, bad actors must be stopped whether it is crypto or fiat. After all, Austrian school of economics is not an ideology but a theory. Libertarian ideas might be all fine but we shall never allow ideology to taint our judgement when it comes down to fraud prevention. First and foremost, our research and development is focused on the practical aspects of state-of-the-art blockchain payments but also on the demands of old-school banks. With that said, the engineers in our labs act as innovation lighthouses signaling the paradigm shift in the industry. 

The Lightning Network is in its early stages - like the Bitcoin protocol a decade ago

At this point of time, the Lightning Network is still an experiment - just like bitcoin used to be in its early days. Its Peer-to-Peer architecture makes atomic swaps among users possible and allows for interoperability among cryptocurrency networks on a large scale. The framework is built as a smart link enabling fast transactions within the decentralized digital cash ecosystem. Besides, the instant payment feature facilitates connectivity to trusted legacy payment schemes based on bank money. Interestingly enough, the lightning protocol utilizes a hybrid concept distributing transactions among off-chain and on-chain applications. In principal, it works quiet similar to an escrow account. Simply put, the trustee turns into hardware & software. Thus, the digitized fiduciary replaces the customary middleman through blockchain cryptography but deploys conventional clearing and settlement mechanisms simultaneously. Essentially, distributed ledger technology gets combined with time-tested concepts that have been used by traditional financial service providers in correspondent banking for centuries.

Atomic swaps reinforce digital trust

Digital assets securely bound to cryptography, corruption-free financial services, math-based monetary policies, and censorship resistance do not constitute theoretical constructs or high ideals. These ideas and techniques are already a reality. Every bit as the Lightning Network that reinforces digital trust and empowers Bitcoin users to safely and quickly process their money on a local and global level at their own discretion. This way of distributing funds and spreading risk is opposed to the procedures of multinational financial groups and public institutions. They control vast amounts of money centrally and on behalf of third parties which represents unpredictable systemic risks for the misallocation of funds. How history taught us, dysfunctional financial organizations can cause economic crisis. Solution approaches like disintermediation via decentralized finance (DeFi) together with more competition through open & cooperative banking have the potential to fix the system. In particular, disruptive technologies such as blockchain payments over the Lightning Network are instrumental to improve the structures of finance and the features of money long-term.