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Cryptocurrency payments platform Coingate began its trial on Lightning Network using Litecoin. According to marketing manager Veronika Mishura, the company realizes up to 10% of its monthly volume through Litecoin. They believe that the integration of Litecoin Lightning Network, which now has over 100 knots, will increase the incentive to use cryptocurrency due to the reduction in tariffs.
Mishura told CCN:
VPNs are honestly one of the most frequently used services by crypto-enthusiasts (what we see from our data). However, due to the rather low price, it is usually a no-win to be paid with Bitcoin or Litecoin; and that's exactly what Lightning should solve. This is what we are trying to show – paying even for low-priced products should be possible, convenient and cheap using cryptocurrency.
The first merchant to use Lightning Network on Litecoin will be Surfshark, a VPN provider. Mishura says he hopes that all 4,500 of their merchants will be interested in integrating Lightning to reduce friction on both sides.
Lightning Network, of course, is a scaling solution created for Bitcoin, but has been adapted and launched on Litecoin in recent times. The Lightning network uses payment channels to regulate off-line transactions compared to traditional Bitcoin or Litecoin transactions. For Bitcoin, this means a huge increase in throughput possible once most of the nodes have correctly integrated the software.
Adoption by the merchants
CoinGate works similarly to that used by Coinbase, mainly focused on the European market. They allow people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with fiat options, as well as providing a payment platform. Coinbase processed trades for traders once but left the business to focus on its exchange. The move made Bitpay the main Bitcoin processor for merchants.
CoinGate allows companies to accept all major cryptocurrencies and numerous altcoins. Their standard rate is 1% and customers can choose Bitcoins, dollars or Euros as a designated payment.
Paul Puey of Edge Wallet believes that merchant adoption is critical to the global adoption of Bitcoin and that what is missing is an easy-to-use encryption terminal for merchants. One of the crypto-native payment processors will eventually have to unveil something like that. It will have to be superior to existing and frictionless payment terminals for merchants, if the crypt must never take off in a day to day sense, from trader to customer.
Litecoin users who wish to try Lightning Network can use it via Surfshark starting today.
