The Xapo Bank and Lightning Network partnership will bring about ease of small payments with BTC for users.
Bitcoin’s institutional adoption throughout the world carries on at full swing as Xapo Bank- an international private bank from Gibraltar- is integrating services of the Lightning Network with itself to facilitate quicker and efficient Bitcoin payments. Xapo is forming this partnership with the Lightning Network’s infrastructure protocol Lightspark, so the bank can incorporate Lightning services on the platform.
The partnership was brought forth on February 27, 2023, as a part of the newest upgrade for the Xapo Bank apps on the App Store, as well as the Google Play Store. Among the many benefits the integration of Lightspark provides to the Xapo users would be quicker, more cost-effective transactions, and lowered block confirmation times and waived transaction charges on the Bitcoin blockchain itself.
Actual transaction confirmation periods on the Bitcoin network can range as far as one hour, especially during a time of high usage. As the Xapo Bank CEO Seamus Rocca points out, this does render Bitcoin unsuitable for small regular payments such as groceries or your daily cup of coffee, inhibiting its widespread adoption as a medium of exchange. With its partnership with Lightspark, this is where Xapo Bank aims to provide a solution.
Powered by the Lightning Network, Xapo Bank users can now pay instantly for any purchases up to $100, provided that the vendor accepts Lightning payments as well. This allows the Xapo users to pay with Bitcoin without going through the hassle of converting it to the US dollar.
As Rocca says, “By integrating with the hyper-efficient Lightning Network, we are the first bank in the world to streamline this process and allow our members to pay for small purchases with Bitcoin without having to convert to USD first.”
There is one limitation, however. For the time being, higher volume transactions would not be facilitated by the partnership.