Meta Vice President to assemble team to develop Lightning Network

David Marcus introduced Lightspark to expand the capabilities of bitcoin

13.05.2022 - 13:55

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2 min

What’s new? David Marcus, ex-Meta (recognized as an extremist organization and banned within the Russian Federation) crypto chief, announced the launch of Lightspark, a new company focused on the development of the Lightning Network. The startup has been backed by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm, Coatue, and Matrix Partners. Marcus reported this on Twitter.

I wanted to share that we are starting a new company called @lightspark to explore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of #Bitcoin. As a first step, we’re actively assembling a team to dive deeper into the Lightning Network. (1/3)— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) May 12, 2022

What else is known about the startup? According to Marcus, at the initial stage, the company is assembling a team to explore and develop the Lightning Network. He noted that the downturn in the crypto market is a good time to expand the capabilities of bitcoin.

What is Lightning Network? It is a Layer 2 (L2) payment protocol that is used to speed up transactions on the Bitcoin network and address scalability issues.

What events happened before? In April, the Lightning Labs team, which develops Layer 2 solutions for bitcoin, announced the release of a new protocol called Taro. With it, developers would be able to issue various digital assets, including stablecoins, based on the bitcoin network and the Lightning Network payment protocol.

Shopify, an online commerce company, to integrate bitcoin payments into its platform. Shopify entered into an agreement with the Strike payment application, which is based on the Lightning Network. The innovation would exclude banks from the payment ecosystem, which would significantly reduce fees for merchants and provide privacy for customers.

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