The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, stated that Bitcoin Lightning Network is something they will integrate into the platform.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that they will integrate Bitcoin Lightning Network
In response to a tweet, the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, stated that the Bitcoin Lightning Network, the layer 2 scaling solution, will be integrated into the platform.
My tweets auto-delete after some number of months, so there is no search history.
Lightning is great and something we’ll integrate.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) April 8, 2023
Basically, Armstrong spoke out after being castigated as the one who “ignores” Bitcoin’s famous Layer-2 network, namely Lightning Network (LN).
In this regard, the Coinbase CEO said that Lightning is great and will be integrated on the publicly traded platform. However, the message does not specify when this integration will take place or any other details.
And yet, other crypto-exchanges have already provided Bitcoin’s Lightning Network integration, such as Bitfinex, which, back in January 2023 alone, had reported some of its record data on LN’s network.
Bitfinex, which already operates the third largest Lightning node, marked an average of 10,000 deposits and withdrawals per month on the network, with an average amount of 0.02 BTC, the equivalent at that time of $460. Not only that, at that time Bitfinex nodes had also exceeded 1.2k BTC.
Coinbase and the dramatic increase in lobbying expenses in the last 6 months
Presumably, Coinbase has not yet taken steps to integrate Bitcoin’s Lightning Network because it has been engaged with other issues, such as lobbying.
And indeed, the crypto-wallet and crypto-exchange apparently spent as much as $3.39 million in 2022 to influence policies in its favor.
This is lobbying, which while often labeled as bribery, is actually an activity protected by the US Constitution and occurs in secret in every country.
In this regard, Coinbase seems to have been increasingly willing to support elected officials who approve the activities of the crypto-exchange, spending specifically $80,000 in 2017, $1.52 million in 2021, and over $3 million last year.
The increase in spending on lobbying activities over the past 6 years by Coinbase has increased by 4137%.
Bitcoin Lightning Network: capacity nears 5.5 BTC
The capacity of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network does not seem to be stopping or decreasing, but rather surpassing its own record. At the time of writing, the capacity is 5.416 BTC, the equivalent of $162,706.
#LightningNetwork https://t.co/Q0CaYRhLWD observed:
16,438 nodes
74,611 channels
5,417.642 BTC capacity ($154,556,651)median node capacity: 0.005 BTC ($142.64)
past 24h:
+23 nodes +270 channels -6.427 BTC ($-183,354)#Lightning #LN #bitcoin $BTC— Lightning Network statistics
(@LNstats) April 10, 2023
The BTC locked within the LN network signify that they can be used within the second layer, allowing for increasingly faster and cheaper transactions.
This capacity turns out to be as much as 200 BTC more than the 5.2 BTC recorded in January 2023.