Fidelity Digital, the digital asset arm of Fidelity Investments, a large financial institution with over 27 million customers that manages $7.2 trillion worth of assets, has recently received the Lightning Network ‘torch’, as part of a game being played on Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling solution.
The game first started by tippin.me user hodlnaut, and sees users pass along the ‘torch’ to others they trust, adding 10,000 satoshis to it at every hop. It made headlines earlier this month, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey picked it up, and passed it along.
The torch has kept on going, and has recently gotten to Fidelity Digital Assets. A self-proclaimed ‘Bitcoin Maximalist who’s “interested in mining/trading” on Twitter going by Wiz had received the torch, and asked who wanted to be next.
To receive it, Fidelity Digital Assets had to reply with a LN invoice for 3.64 million satoshis, worth over $140. Notably, Fidelity Digital Assets reached out to Wiz, noting their research arm would be honored to receive it.
We’d be honored if you would pass the #LNTorch to our research arm, Fidelity Center for Applied Tech. We are ready with an invoice for 3.64M sats #LNTrustChain #LightningTorch ⚡
— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) February 22, 2019
Soon after, the organization confirmed it received the torch, making it the first financial institution to participate in the trust-based game. It passed it along to HBS Blockchain and Crypto Club, a student club at Harvard Business School.
We and our research team at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology have received the #LNTorch ⚡from @Wiz.
Who should we pass it to? #LNTrustChain https://t.co/JGcVoNQgBA
— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) February 22, 2019
Fidelity, which is expected to launch its crypto custody service next month, became the 229th torchbearer in the trust game, which hasn’t just seen Jack Dorsey participate, but also BitMex Research, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, and TRON’s Justin Sun, among others.
Notably, the torch game has seen someone break the trust chain and steal the funds. When it was at 250,000 satoshis, a Twitter user claiming to not have the 10,000 satoshis he was supposed to add to it decided to steal the funds, according to a website tracking the game.
Lightning Network Growth
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has seemingly been growing at an astounding pace. As one Twitter user pointed out, a year ago it would seem odd to see a financial institution like Fidelity Digital Assets post a LN invoice on the microblogging platform. Fidelity, however, has been dipping its toes into the cryptocurrency ecosystem for a while.
Back in December of last year, the layer-two scaling solution surpassed a 500 BTC capacity. Tracking website 1ML shows that it’s now at 718 BTC – worth roughly $2.8 million. It has over 6,500 nodes, and 29,800 payments channels.
Earlier this month Koala Studio, an online gaming platform that’s building on top of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, released its first title: Lightning Chess. It allows players to undo moves, extend timers, and wager bets through the scaling solution.
