Coinbase taps Lightspark for Bitcoin Lightning Network integration

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Coinbase has partnered with Lightspark to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network, offering its customers near-instant and more affordable Bitcoin transactions, announced Lightspark in a post on X.

We're excited to share that @Coinbase has selected @Lightspark to bring the Lightning Network to all its customers, promising near-instant, cheaper Bitcoin transactions. Read more here: https://t.co/PaxyhKMZtv pic.twitter.com/MoEENtjElm

— Lightspark (@lightspark) April 3, 2024

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a second-layer payment system built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s designed to address some of the Bitcoin blockchain’s limitations, particularly regarding transaction speed and cost.

Lightspark shared in a recent blog announcement that the team has been developing its platform for nearly two years, focusing on providing an enterprise-grade entry point to the Lightning Network. With this partnership, Coinbase will utilize Lightspark’s remote-key signing implementation, allowing the exchange to maintain control over the Lightning signing keys while Lightspark manages the node infrastructure.

Shan Aggarwal, VP of Corporate & Business Development at Coinbase, stated, “Coinbase is committed to making the global financial system faster and more efficient.” He expressed excitement about the partnership’s potential to “eliminate payment barriers and enable faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions.”

The integration is expected to substantially impact the Lightning Network’s usage, especially as Bitcoin prices and transaction fees on the primary network rise. Lightspark’s technology, including its AI-based smart engine Lightspark Predict, aims to optimize liquidity and routing to achieve high transaction success rates.

This latest development follows a statement from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong last August. Armstrong revealed that his exchange was exploring a Lightning Network solution and thought it was “worth doing.”

We’re looking into how to best add Lightning. It’s non-trivial, but I think worth doing. I’m all for payments taking off in Bitcoin.

Not sure why you think we’re ignoring Bitcoin – we’ve onboarded more people to Bitcoin than probably any company in the world.

Let’s build it… https://t.co/9dFGYd6XZt

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) August 2, 2023

Founded in May 2022 by David Marcus, a former Facebook finance head, Lightspark has garnered support from key industry players such as a16z, Paradigm, Thrive Capital, Felix Capital, and Matrix Partners, among others. The details of the funding remain undisclosed.

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