BitPay, a bitcoin & crypto payment platform, today announced support for Lightning Network payments. Now, BitPay merchants and their customers have access to cheaper, more scalable bitcoin payments.
The combination of payments made through the main bitcoin blockchain and through the Lightning Network results in an overall better payment experience that is fast, low cost, and scalable.
Payments can be made through Lightning Network-supported wallets like Strike, Cash App, and others. No additional setup or configuration is required for BitPay merchants to accept Lightning payments.
Benefits of Lightning Network
Lightning Network is a secondary layer of the blockchain that enables scalable transactions with low fees. It was created to improve the cost and scalability of bitcoin transactions.
Merchants and their customers can make “off-chain” transactions without jamming the main blockchain, while still receiving the same security and convenience of blockchain-based payments.
- Fast transactions – Performing smaller transactions on the Lightning Network reduces congestion on the main blockchain, speeding up transactions across the board.
- Low transaction fees – Fees on the Lightning Network are just a fraction of a cent. For merchants, this means more customers spending crypto. For customers, this means that paying with crypto is as efficient as any other payment method. Additionally, micropayments become more economical.
- Scalability – Lightning Network can process hundreds of thousands more transactions per second than the main Bitcoin blockchain.
“BitPay’s integration with the Lightning Network offers customers more choice and merchants more ways to be paid leveraging blockchain technology.”
– Tony Gallipi, BitPay’s Co-Founder
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