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A new feature for implementing Bitcoin's Lightning Network (LN) allows users to send funds instantly without having to create an invoice first.
The Sphinx enables the "new cases of use"
The latest update, "Sphinx", which developers describe as a "work in progress", is however already available to anyone.
"The most interesting part of this new feature is that it can be used today in nature as long as both nodes are updated on this branch!" The author Olaoluwa Osuntokun wrote in a Github repository dedicated to the project.
New "Sphinx" sending mode in @lightning LND (work in progress) allows spontaneous payments without an invoice. It can include user data or APIs, simplifying the monetized interfaces and enabling new use cases. https://t.co/BbWuw9spk1
– Stadicus (@ Stadicus3000) 12 January 2019
The Lightning Network is a protocol currently active for Bitcoin and Litecoin that allows users to send tokens instantly and at an average rate of less than 1 US cents.
The technology debuted on the Bitcoin network a year ago, and has grown rapidly, but remains in an experimental state when developers smooth out the problems of stability and reliability.
At the moment, sending or receiving a transaction still requires some technical understanding, which made Lightning an unattractive option for entry-level users, despite its time and cost benefits.
Is the "best" feature of Lightning still?
Sphinx, which Osuntokun says "allows users to start exploring a new series of use cases", aims to solve that situation.
It eliminates the need to create a payment invoice for a transaction, allowing a more "spontaneous" activity and overshadowing an important, potentially daunting element for beginners.
"This is just a draft implementation and while it works today on mainnet out of the box (if both parts are up-to-date) it will most likely change," he added.
Sphinx is a period of frenetic development for LN that has continued throughout 2018. Despite the fluctuations, capacity, node and channel numbers have reached new highs in recent weeks.
According to data from the 1ML monitoring resource, the capacity of Bitcoin Lightning is now 571 BTC ($ 2,076,000) between 5234 nodes and 19,500 channels.
The Sphinx in the meantime has already begun to receive a warm welcome, commentators have said in various ways that had attracted them from starting to use Lightning and that it was now the "best" feature of the network.
What do you think about the Sphinx of Lightning Network? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
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