Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, and CEO of microblogging platform Twitter and financial payments company Square has confirmed that one of his companies may soon integrate bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
The LN is a layer-2 payment protocol launched in January 2018 and it runs on top of bitcoin. It is designed to make bitcoin more scalable by enabling faster and cheaper transactions on the network.
In a June 11 tweet, a Twitter user by the name deyonté requested Dorsey to integrate the Lightning Network into Twitter or Bluesky — Twitter’s decentralized social networking effort. The Twitter chief responded with, “only a matter of time”.
Notably, Dorsey did not specify whether the payment protocol will be built into Bluesky or Twitter or both companies. Even still, LN is likely to be used for micropayments regardless of the company that Dorsey integrates.
Dorsey’s comments come amid plans by Square to expand its cryptocurrency-centered ambitions. As reported by ZyCrypto on June 4, Square is mulling building a non-custodial bitcoin hardware wallet.
On June 5, Square struck a strategic partnership with blockchain technology company Blockstream. Square will be investing $5 million to build an open-source solar-powered bitcoin mining facility at one of Blockstream’s mining sites in the United States.
It’s worth noting that Square is one of the biggest corporate holders of bitcoin. The company currently holds approximately 8,027 BTC (worth over $300 million based on today’s prices). Square has also launched a Bitcoin Endowment to promote cryptocurrency education to the masses. This project is financed by the interest accrued from the company’s corporate treasury.
Speaking during the Bitcoin 2021 event in Miami earlier this month, Dorsey shockingly revealed that he would gladly ditch Square and Twitter for bitcoin if need be.
