How Litecoin [LTC] will drive Bitcoin [BTC]’s Lightning Network adoption
Litecoin [LTC] has long been said to be the silver to Bitcoin [BTC]’s gold, but recent developments may cement its place further as the #1 cryptocurrency’s wingman. Due to its 4x block speed over Bitcoin and perpetually low transaction fees, it is suitable for smaller payments.
More recently, the Litecoin blockchain has emerged to be one of the most suitable ways to get on to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. The network is Bitcoin’s 2nd layer scaling solution and is designed to increase the transaction throughput of Bitcoin.
It achieves this by opening payment channels off the Bitcoin blockchain in which multiple transactions can take place. Once the payment channel is closed, all of the transactions are updated on the main blockchain to ensure their immutability. This is said to push Bitcoin’s transaction speed to hundreds of thousands of transactions per second.
However, as the Lightning Network is still a work in progress, not many of the average population, such as merchants, have access to it. There is one method that may ensure the next big push for adoption will be driven by Litecoin.
A developer known as Alex Bosworth has implemented a technology known as Atomic Swaps, which will allow users to transfer value from the Litecoin blockchain to the Lightning Network. This is essentially an on-chain to off-chain swap, essentially transferring value across two blockchains.
This also means that users can pay an invoice that is on the Lightning Network through Litecoin. Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, said:
“Litecoin will also be the easiest onramp onto the Lightning Network. BTC takes too long and fees to high? No problem. Open an LTC payment channel on chain cheaply and quickly, then atomically swap for BTC if/when you need to. This can be done in one step using submarine swaps!”
Moreover, there have since been advancements in making the Lightning Network more accessible to merchants and others who wish to accept payments through Bitcoin. This includes solutions such as the Casa Node, which is an all-in-one solution to run a node on the Lightning Network. This will allow those who utilize this product to send and receive payments transferred through the network. Moreover, Litecoin support for this product is slated to come soon.
This also lays the foundation for a decentralized exchange across these two blockchains, as stated by Charlie Lee. He stated:
“Lightning Network will be the ultimate decentralized exchange. Users that are running LN on both BTC and LTC can advertise an exchange price and act as a maker earning a spread. Other users can act as a taker and atomically swap LTC/BTC with the maker node via lightning.”
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