By Alicia Maher
Lightning Labs is a Bitcoin software company that has successfully secured massive funding to increase and further improve the Lightning Network for faster and more affordable cryptocurrency transactions.
The purported funding round is a $70 million Series B funding headed by Valor Equity Partners with the participation of several angel investors. The company has also developed more Lightning Network (LN) features and is a Bitcoin L-2 transaction solution provider.
Introducing the Taro Protocol
As part of the initial plan, the funding will be moved to boost the development of the new protocol called “Taro,” which is designed to allow stablecoins to be transferred via the LN, as reported by insiders privy to the project.
Furthermore, Lightning Labs will only be in charge of the facility that would allow the movement of stablecoins, and under no condition will Lightning Labs issue stablecoins.
However, after the Bitcoin Taproot upgrade, stablecoin transactions were performed; with the promotion came smart contract features. The upgrade was carried out last November.
It is widely believed that Taro will further expand the adoption of the pioneering cryptocurrency. It would ensure that the unbanked population, especially in developing countries, would be able to send funds using stablecoins.
The co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, Elizabeth Stark, in a media conversation with Forbes, noted that the new project is significant because it caters to all the global currencies routed via Bitcoin on the Lightning Network.
In another media chat with Tech Crunch, the CEO further added that Visa should be scared by the level of sophistication that the new project has come up with. There are many people with smartphones who do not need the traditional financial system.
The Funding Journey
Lightning Labs raised $10 million for its Series A funding in September last year, after a 2018 funding round that saw it take $2.5 million.
The first country to legalize Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador is also the first to incorporate Lightning Network (LN) extensively throughout the world. LN has been used in the Central American nation on the Strike payments platform and for Twitter tips.
The network collateral is 3,693 BTC which is worth $167 million in fiat, and a 5.8% increase over last month, as per the statistics released.
Stablecoins are continually making a case for themselves as an integral part of the digital financial asset and are gradually recognized by the global financial market system. The United Kingdom is the latest country to have given the green light to fiat pegged stablecoins, and plans are underway to integrate stablecoins as payments in the U.K.
Most stablecoins are immune to price fluctuation due to being pegged to fiat currencies, making them maintain the same value as the fiat.
In other words, stablecoins are beginning to be the next center of attraction for businesses trying to deal with volatile crypto tokens.
This is one primary reason why many entities are interested in adopting them.