Cash App, a well-known service for mobile payments, announced its integration with the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This came as a part of a recent update, which not only allows faster Bitcoin transfers but makes them more affordable too, thanks to the layer-two (L2) payments protocol.
Block (formerly known as Square) developed and owned Cash App. It’s a highly-acclaimed fintech firm co-founded by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. The announcement of the new integration came as a notification on the official Cash App application. Unsurprisingly, the news quickly found its way to Crypto Twitter.
BREAKING: Cash App begins rolling out the Lightning Network to its users ⚡️ #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/wiUyCYuC2G
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) January 11, 2022
The Bitcoin blockchain has several limitations, especially regarding transaction speed and fees. However, this latest Lightning Network protocol addresses these issues.
Last month, Dorsey featured the Lightning Development Kit (LDK) in a video, which is a service by Spiral. For those unfamiliar with Spiral, it’s a subsidiary of Square that solely focuses on developing the Bitcoin ecosystem. With the LDK, developers can easily incorporate Lightning protocols within BTC wallets and similar services.
Before stepping down as Twitter CEO, Dorsey was quite vocal about his interest in incorporating L2 protocols for Twitter and BlueSky’s new tipping services.
In February 2019 @jack together with @starkness on @stephanlivera's show said about CashApp Support for Lightning Network:
"It’s not an if, it’s more of a when and how […] we’re getting the speed that we need and the efficiency"https://t.co/l9TUlPB6W3
Glad they delivered!
— Rene Pickhardt (@renepickhardt) January 11, 2022
According to recent data from Business of Apps, Cash App has catered to more than 36 million users throughout the US and UK. Among other things, Cash App also launched a new service wherein users could gift other people with BTC or stocks for the holidays. Specifically, users could send at least $1 worth of BTC even if they didn’t own the asset.
