The management at Bitfinex, a British Virgin Islands-registered and Hong Kong-operated cryptocurrency exchange that recently acquired $1 billion in funding via a private token sale, is reportedly planning to launch Tether’s USDT stablecoin on a Lightning Network (LN) protocol-enabled network.
USDT to Launch on Lightning Network and EOS
According to Paolo Ardoino, the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Bitfinex, the LN-based Tether project is “one of the coolest things” the company has ever worked on. Bitfinex’s development team has also revealed that it will launch the USDT stablecoin on EOS, one of the largest platforms for building and deploying decentralized applications (dApps).
Currently, the USDT stablecoins in circulation have been developed on the Omni Layer on the Bitcoin blockchain, Ethereum , and the TRON (TRX) platform.
Notably, the developers at Bitfinex also intend to release USDT on Blockstream’s sidechain protocol, the Liquid network. In statements shared with TheBlock, Ardoino confirmed that the blockchain-focused firm intends to launch the stablecoin on an LN-powered network at a later point this year. The CTO added that Bitfinex’s management is also planning to release the leading stablecoin on various other blockchain networks in the future.
Working with RGP to Deploy Digital Assets on Lightning Network-enabled Platforms
In order to release different implementations of USDT on major blockchain networks, the Bitfinex team has reportedly begun working with a group of software architects and firms, known as RGB. These software development teams also intend to launch many new types of digital assets on DLT-powered networks that support the Lightning Network protocol.
Commenting on the initiative, Ardoino remarked:
I think [Lightning Network-based stablecoins] is one of the coolest things we could ever be involved with. We really love LN (I personally do a lot) so we want to make sure we learn and contribute to it with our resources.
Notably, Bitfinex and Tether’s management have been working on creating a LN-based USDT coin since September 2017. As noted on Tether’s official website:
We are also excited to announce the initial discovery and integration discussion with the Lightning team for low-cost, instant transactions of Tether currencies on the Lightning network. This should also facilitate atomic swaps of Tethers between the Omni on Bitcoin and Omni on Litecoin chains.
Should these plans materialize, Tether Ltd. will notably become the first blockchain firm to launch a stablecoin on an LN-enabled network. This may help in further expanding the LN, which currently has a capacity of over 1,000 BTC, an amount currently valued around $8.5 million.
