Paxful Integrates Lightning Network for Bitcoin Transactions

Peer-to-peer digital asset marketplace Paxful has integrated the Lightning Network, a layer 2 payment product built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.

The global integration will serve over seven million Paxful users, allowing them to transfer bitcoin “in a matter of seconds with much lower fees,” according to a company statement released on Tuesday.

Read more: What Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network?

Lightning integration will allow Paxful users to send bitcoin to other Lightning wallets or exchanges, the company stated. No special conversion will be required as Paxful users have a universal bitcoin balance which can be used for both Bitcoin and Lightning network transfers.

The value limit for each Lightning transaction will be capped at $750, for now. “We’re using this release as an opportunity to develop new technology, and we want to ensure our customers have the best probability of having a flawless experience, while we’re further understanding the impact of Lightning,” said Kristina Bannan, associate director of public relations at Paxful.

In June, Paxful launched an e-commerce tool to allow businesses worldwide to receive bitcoin payments, exchanging customers’ payments from over 400 different methods into bitcoin, which is then sent to the merchant’s digital wallets.

“The industry’s greatest chance of Bitcoin scalability is through Lightning, which makes micropayments exceedingly cheaper and faster. Buying a coffee with Bitcoin will now be a realistic option,” Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder of Paxful, said in a statement.

Founded in 2015, Paxful doubled its size over the last 12 months to 400 employees, the company said.

In August, the Lightning Network surpassed 25,000 active nodes for the first time, after doubling its growth in recent months.

For more information on the Lightning Network, download the CoinDesk research report, “A Deep Dive Into the Lightning Network as a Bitcoin Scaling Solution.”