Bitcoin (BTC) popularised the term blockchain. Blockchains, or “decentralized and distributed digital ledgers used to record transactions across a network of computers,” have been around for over thirty years, the household name for a blockchain is Bitcoin. That’s despite the fact that the Genesis block was mined well over 14 years ago when George W. Bush was president and “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas topped the charts–Bitcoin is still top of the blocks. It’s to be expected, then, that most blockchain advocates would have used, understood or a the very least experimented with Bitcoin. Nope. Not so. Here’s …

Xapo Bank, an international private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, integrates the Lightning Network to improve its Bitcoin (BTC) capabilities. On March 2, Xapo officially announced a partnership with the Lightning Network infrastructure platform Lightspark, which allowed the firm to implement Lightning on its platform. The integration enables faster and cheaper transactions on Xapo, reducing blockchain confirmation waiting times and transaction fees on the original Bitcoin network. According to the firm, Xapo Bank members will now be able to instantly pay for small purchases of up to $100 at any vendor accepting Lightning payments. High-volume transactions are initially not supported with …

BlueWallet is sunsetting its lightning node connection to Lndhub.io according to an official statement. BlueWallet will cease custodial Lightning operations–meaning that BlueWallet users of the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network must connect to nodes to continue using BlueWallet lighting services. What does BlueWallet sunsetting LndHub mean for you? - If you use BlueWallet for on-chain bitcoin: ✅ nothing - If you use other LndHub services (like LightningTipBot, LNbits, Alby): ✅ nothing - If you use the Lightning account hosted by them: ⚡️ Move your sats out Read on — calle ⚡️ (@callebtc) February 23, 2023 Calle, a Lightning Developer who tweeted …

Jack Dorsey’s payment company Block Inc. reported $1.83 billion of Bitcoin (BTC) revenue from its Cash App business unit in the fourth quarter, representing a 7% fall from the same time last year. In its Q4 and full-year results announced on Feb. 23, Block cited the fall in Bitcoin revenue to the decline in BTC price in the year — which fell approximately 65% throughout 2022. This fall in revenue led to a 25% year-on-year drop in Bitcoin gross profit for Cash App, which fell to $35 million in the quarter. Cash App is a mobile phone payment processing app …

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) capacity recently surpassed an all-time high of 5,000 BTC. The Lightning Network is a neutral protocol built on top of Bitcoin and currently it does not have a “native” token attached to it like many decentralized finance platforms. Although the Lightning Network’s total liquidity is less than 0.5% of the ETH in DeFi contracts, the uptrend in Bitcoin’s LN capacity versus a downtrend in the amount of ETH locked in smart contracts is encouraging for LN development. While the liquidity on the LN has been rising consistently, the number of channels on the peer-to-peer network dropped …

A 48% Bitcoin (BTC) price surge since the start of the year has pushed BTC's market cap past that of payment processing giant Visa once again. With the BTC price currently at $24,365, its market cap of $470.16 billion is now marginally above that of Visa with a market cap of $469.87 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. This is the third time that BTC has "flippened" the market cap of Visa, according to Companies Market Cap. The first time came in late December 2020 when BTC also happened to hit $25,000 for the first time. This was achieved during a price …

Play to Earn retro games with Bitcoin payouts may soon be making their way to a bar, conference, or meetup near you, according to a Feb. 12 Twitter post by Zebedee founder Christian Moss. The software is tentatively called “Bit-tendo.” Bitcoin Pay to Play & Play to Earn in Super Mario 3 on the original NES! #bitcoin #retrogames #lightningnetwork powered by @zebedeeio and @lnbits 200 retweets and i'll integrate SONIC "Bit-tendo" will be a free retro game bitcoin infuser for bars, conferences, meet ups etc pic.twitter.com/4GBuXX9pN2 — Christian Moss (@MandelDuck) February 12, 2023 The Twitter post includes a video of …

Damus, a so-called “Twitter killer” built on a decentralized network has been approved on the Apple App Store. The Damus team confirmed the approval to its 11,500 Twitter followers on Jan. 31, following what it claims was at least three rejections from the Big Tech player. Shortly after, Twitter co-founder and Nostr contributor Jack Dorsey shared the news with his 6.5 million followers, with the entrepreneur labeling it as a “milestone” moment for open source protocols: a milestone for open protocols...#nostr is now officially on the Apple App Store with @damusapp:https://t.co/GQmvPE5nfX — jack (@jack) January 31, 2023 The app dubs …

A Bitcoin Lightning Network node (BTC) has struck the earth in one of the most challenging operating environments. Lagos, the capital of Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, welcomed a new Bitcoin Lightning node this week, a vital step to better connect the continent to the layer-2 payments network atop Bitcoin, the Lightning Network (LN). The node runs on an old laptop powered by a diesel generator as Lagos regularly experiences energy and electricity blackouts. In a discussion with Cointelegraph, Megasley, who is the first Nigerian Lightning node of 2023 and the first active Lightning node in the country (as other …

While Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs were an afterthought to Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of sound money, they are now considered one of the main pillars of Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption. However, the global Bitcoin ATM network, which used to add thousands of machines each month in 2021, recorded a net addition of just 94 Bitcoin ATMs over the past six months since July 2022. A year-long bear market in 2022 — accompanied by geopolitical tensions and global inflation — hindered various initiatives aiding the growth of the entire crypto ecosystem. As a result, efforts to install new Bitcoin ATMs dipped in many countries …

The Australian city of Coolangatta has got its first Bitcoin (BTC) ATM with integrated Lightning network capabilities. The new ATM has been installed at The Strand shopping center in Coolangatta and is now available for use by the public. A Bitcoin Lightning ATM works quite similarly to traditional Bitcoin ATMs but saves significant time because of the instant transaction capabilities of the layer-2 Lightning solution. It also allows for purchasing very small amounts of BTC, mostly in Satoshi (sats), the lowest denomination of Bitcoin, where one satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 BT. At the moment, cryptocurrency ATMs settle transactions on …

Bitcoin (BTC) had a bumpy ride throughout 2022, along with the rest of the digital asset market. The cryptocurrency began the year exchanging hands around $46,700 and is currently trading over 64% down at $16,560 at the time of writing. Consequently, the coin’s market capitalization took a tumble from around $900 billion on Jan. 1, 2022 to end the year at around $320 billion. While Bitcoin’s drop in price could be attributed to the extraordinary circumstances that the entire cryptocurrency market has been through this year, it is important to reevaluate the 2022 price predictions made by various market entities. …