The main world crypto trade and derivatives buying and selling platform OKEx not too long ago announced help for Bitcoin’s scalability resolution, Lightning Network. Regarding the new improvement, we had the alternative to work together with Jay Hao, CEO of OKEx and the Lightning Network (LN) group. We requested them few questions and that is what they needed to say.
Q: Is it true that OKEx goes to undertake the Bitcoin Lightning Network? How is it going to work in OKEx’s context?
Jay Hao (OKEx): Yes! We started our integration journey with the assist of Lightning Labs in January and not too long ago accomplished the integration of the Lightning Network. This implies that OKEx will grow to be a taking part node in the community and customers on the OKEx trade will be capable to choose the Lightning Network possibility after they need to deposit or withdraw Bitcoin for cheaper and sooner transactions.
Q: What are the foreseeable advantages of Lightning Network for OKEx in addition to its userbase?
Jay Hao (OKEx): For OKEx, we’re thrilled to have the ability to help the improvement of the Bitcoin ecosystem by partnering with Lightning Labs and growing the quantity of taking part nodes in the Lightning Network. This partnership highlights our deep dedication to the continued development of the house and, for our customers, it supplies them with the advantages of tremendously decreased transaction occasions and charges – they’ll ship and obtain BTC nearly immediately and at next-to-no price.
LN: OKEx’s Lightning Network integration brings a large UX improve to bitcoin for his or her customers. Deposits and withdrawals over Lightning are nearly immediate and practically free, particularly in comparison with on-chain transactions. On-chain bitcoin is the slowest asset shifting round the crypto monetary system, however Lightning makes it the quickest, opening up new use instances like inter-exchange arbitrage and immediately topping up margin during times of excessive volatility. We are excited for OKEx’s customers to expertise the advantages of bitcoin over Lightning.
Q: Can you give us some insights into the total course of of collaborating with OKEx to implement Lightning Network?
LN: OKEx made it straightforward! Our open-source code and documentation at docs.lightning.engineering simplifies the onboarding course of and makes it straightforward for anybody to combine Lightning. OKEx utilized our publicly accessible sources and our group was accessible to reply inquiries to help the course of. Another nice useful resource for implementation is the LND Developer Slack, the place our group and the total neighborhood is obtainable to reply questions and assist newcomers onboard to Lightning.
Q: The current Bitcoin bull run drove quite a bit of folks in the direction of crypto buying and selling platforms leading to a surge in site visitors and buying and selling volumes. How is OKEx dealing with it? Will the implementation of Lightning Network make any distinction if an analogous situation repeats in the future?
Jay Hao (OKEx): It’s true, we now have seen a big increment in our consumer base from throughout the globe. In the APAC area alone, buying and selling quantity shot up 3x from September 2020 till now. We are frequently upgrading our infrastructure to make sure a easy onboarding expertise for brand spanking new clients and a seamless buying and selling expertise for current clients. Integrating the Lightning Network will permit all of them to acquire cheaper and quick transactions. This is only one of the methods through which we intention to make OKEx their platform of alternative.
Q: Where does the improvement of Lightning Network stand at the second? What are the future plans to additional enhance Bitcoin’s L2 resolution?
LN: The Lightning Network is pretty secure at this level. As node operators have discovered how finest to handle their liquidity, fee success charges are persevering with to develop and end-user adoption is growing. OKEx becoming a member of the community is a big vote of confidence, and we count on their customers to be impressed by how briskly and low-cost bitcoin transactions will be. Future enhancements shall be targeted on UX with options like Atomic Multipath Payments (AMP) that permit for static invoices, and on optimizations enabling greater throughput to be used instances like streaming funds and high-frequency buying and selling.
Q: Will or not it’s potential so that you can let our readers know what number of exchanges and buying and selling platforms are presently utilizing Lightning Network?
LN: There are over 15 exchanges presently utilizing the Lightning Network, tracked in this community repository. Bitrefill recently announced that in Q1 they started receiving funds over the Lightning Network from 105 completely different nations! So utilization could be very widespread.
Q: What are the steps taken by your group to additional popularize the Lightning Network?
LN: The majority of our work is behind the scenes, constructing the infrastructure that Lightning-enabled corporations like OKEx rely on. When end-users are uncovered to the dramatically improved expertise of Lightning funds over on-chain funds, Lightning speaks for itself. We do shine a highlight on the rising Lightning neighborhood in our monthly newsletter, and host biweekly voice chat rooms on Clubhouse and on Discord for those who need to study instantly from our group.
Q: What are your ideas about the future of Bitcoin as the value continues to rise? Will it ever grow to be a layman’s forex, or will it simply find yourself reinforcing its place as an funding instrument?
Jay Hao (OKEx): We are nonetheless in the early days of adoption and, as every new wave of adopters onboards, we see elevated volatility, which results in many analysts and naysayers to level to Bitcoin’s inefficiency as a medium of trade. Moreover, as the cryptocurrency appreciates in worth, it’s pure that its attractiveness as a retailer of worth will increase. However, I do imagine that Bitcoin has the potential to grow to be a dominant type of cash. I don’t assume that it will likely be the just one however, with the elevated enchancment and adoption of applied sciences like the Lightning Network making it simpler and sooner to make use of, and as extra folks switch over to utilizing Bitcoin, there’s an ever-increasing case for it to grow to be a layman’s forex. OKEx is proud to play an element in serving to to take BTC to the relaxation of the world.
LN: As beforehand talked about, Bitrefill recently announced that they acquired funds over Lightning from 105 completely different nations in Q1 of 2021. Bluewallet is seeing 500+% annual consumer development of their cellular Lightning pockets product in nations like Brazil, Nigeria, Argentina, and Israel. Strike launched in El Salvador just a few weeks in the past with their cellular Lightning pockets focused at remittances and instantly turned the most downloaded total app in the nation. They permit end-users to pay Lightning invoices from their fiat-denominated balances in order that the consumer spends {dollars} however the receiver earns bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a forex for everybody! It is already serving a extensively distributed group of customers. While hodling continues to be the dominant use case for bitcoin, it’s rather more than only a digital rock, particularly when lifted into the Lightning Network. As extra folks worldwide swap to the Bitcoin normal, we count on this pattern to proceed.
Q: Anything you wish to add?
Jay Hao (OKEx): It is our perception that the cryptocurrency trade can solely develop by way of collaboration. By working collectively, trade contributors might help obtain the purpose of advancing cryptocurrency globally and empowering people to realize monetary freedom. We couldn’t be happier to have the ability to take this subsequent step ahead with such an progressive companion in Lightning Labs.
LN: We are on a mission to advertise monetary freedom by bringing bitcoin to the subsequent billion folks with the Lightning Network. Every new node strengthens Lightning’s community impact, particularly when the new node has as many customers as OKEx. We are thrilled that OKEx has upgraded their bitcoin UX for customers, permitting them to switch worth immediately and cheaply with the identical safety assurances as on-chain bitcoin.
