Coinbase Considers Integrating Bitcoin’s Lightning Network for Payments

Coinbase plans to integrate Bitcoin's Lightning Network to facilitate faster cryptocurrency payments. According to a comment by the exchange's CEO Brian Armstrong, Coinbase supports the efforts to facilitate payments on Bitcoin through the Lightning Network.

Armstrong was responding to a tweet by Jack Dorsey, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Twitter, who criticized the exchange for allegedly ignoring Bitcoin and Lightning Network. Lightning is a layer-2 payment platform on top of the Bitcoin network, intended to facilitate faster transactions.

"We are looking into how to best add Lightning. It is non-trivial, but I think it is worth doing," Armstrong said." I am all for payments taking off in Bitcoin." He added that the US-based cryptocurrency exchange had onboarded more users to Bitcoin than probably any other company globally.

Coinbase under Pressure

Binance and Coinbase have been called out in the past for not paying much attention to Lightning Network. However, Armstrong has responded in the same way over and over to critics: that Coinbase was planning to integrate the network. However, he has not provided much details about what users should expect from the integration or the timelines.

On the contrary, rival cryptocurrency exchanges, including OKX, Kraken, and Bitfinex, have already integrated Lightning Network. OKX integrated the network in 2021, enabling users to deposit and withdraw BTC on the platform. Similarly, Kraken integrated Lightning Network in 2022, terming it as an 'instant and inexpensive' way to move BTC, while Bitfinex has used the network since 2019.

Faster Payments Transactions

The Lightning Network allows transactions on Bitcoin to be taken off the main blockchain by creating channels between the transacting parties. Once the transactions have been completed, the channels are closed, and the details of the transactions are recorded on the main Bitcoin blockchain. Thus the transactions are completed much faster.

Additionally, the Lightning Network has attracted interest from traditional financial institutions. For instance, Xapo Bank integrated the network in March in partnership with Lightspark. During the launch, the Gibraltar-based financial institution said that customers could use the network to make purchases using Bitcoin.