• TBD, a subsidiary of Block (formerly Square) has announced c=, a new Lightning Network business.
• The company will use bitcoin from Block’s treasury to make Bitcoin’s Lightning Network more usable and reliable for developers, businesses, and end consumers.
• c= will provide node operators with valuable connections to Lightning, liquidity to enable transactions and collaboration with developers through APIs and services.
TBD Announces New Lightning Network Business: c=
Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) subsidiary, TBD, has announced the launch of c=—a new Lightning Network business focused on improving usability and reliability of Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling protocol.
Purpose Of The Company
The purpose of the company is to use bitcoin from Block’s treasury in order to make Bitcoin’s Lightning Network more usable and reliable for developers, businesses (such as merchants that accept Lightning payments), and those businesses’ end consumers. It aims to address liquidity shortfalls that can cause transactions to fail by building infrastructure using the bitcoin it is committing to the network so that businesses and wallets can make their Lightning transactions more reliable.
Benefits For Node Operators
For node operators, c= will provide liquidity in order to enable transactions as well as collaborate with developers in order to provide efficient routing and liquidity via APIs and services.
Exploring Decentralized Web Services
Since being renamed into Block in 2022, TBD has been exploring Bitcoin-based decentralized web services including decentralized identifiers (DID), decentralized web nodes etc. With this new entrance into Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling protocol, TBD now has a major presence in lightning infrastructure.
Conclusion
Through c=’s LSP any business or individual running a lightning node can gain efficiencies without relying on an intermediary by making their transactions via Lighting with minimal effort or investment. This move by TBD further proves its commitment towards bridging the old world economy with the new world economy based around open protocols and standards which all participants can benefit from.