Vaultoro, the world’s first crypto-to-gold exchange, has recently announced it implemented bitcoin’s Lightning Network as an instant deposit method. In the future, per the exchange’s CEO, users will be able to buy gold with bitcoin directly from their wallets.
To take advantage of Vaultoro’s Lightning Network (LN) payments integration, users will have to download the Eclair Wallet, deposit funds in it, open a Lightning channel, and once its fully loaded deposit funds to Vaultoro’s deposit address. Since the feature is still in Beta, Vaultoro only allows deposits up to 100 Satoshis using the Lightning Network.
Normally, users have to send their bitcoins to Vaultoro and wait for six network confirmations before they can start trading. During the waiting period, their bitcoins are exposed to counterparty risk. With the Lightning Network, the company’s CEO Joshya Scigala notes, users won’t need to trust Vaultoro’s hot wallet to trade.
According to a blog post, the exchange plans on allowing users to place orders directly from their wallets, thanks to the Lightning Network. The blog post reads:
“Vaultoro traders will be able to deposit funds in milliseconds without having to trust our exchange hot wallet if set to instant order. Our goal at Vaultoro has always been to make the exchange radically transparent and now with lightning network, market takers will have no need to trust our hot wallet.”
Vaultoro notes that the Lightning Network payments feature is still in Beta, and warns users they’ll be using it at their own risk. The Eclair Wallet is now recommended, as it’s the only Android wallet supporting LN payments.
The company claims it was also the first exchange to support the user activated soft for (UASF) back in May 2017, in an attempt to “help unlock the upgrade stalemate” that divided the bitcoin community, and ultimately led to Bitcoin Cash’s creation.
Per its website, Vaultoro currently allows users to trade gold using bitcoin, down to a minimum of 0.001 grams of gold. The exchange fully transparent, and even lists on its website the amount of gold and bitcoin each user has, while maintaining anonymity.
The exchange’s users can hold gold for seconds or years, while knowing their ownership certificate is safely stored on the blockchain. Gold holdings are physically stored in Switzerland, and can either be requested or left in the vault, where they’re insured. Reportedly, Vaultoro is working on a gold-backed debit card.
