Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is planning to launch the infamous stablecoin Tether (USDT) on Bitcoin’s lightning network, according to a report by The Block on May 31.
Per the report, Bitfinex’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said the firm is looking to bring USDT to more blockchains and will launch their questionable stablecoin on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network sometime this year.
Adding to this, he said:
“I think that is one of the coolest things we could ever being [sic] 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.”
Tether (USDT) on Lightning Network
In an effort to make this vision a reality, Bitfinex has joined RGB, a group of developers and companies working to put more assets on the Lightning Network.
Moreover, it appears that Bitfinex has long had intentions to implement Tether on the Lightning Network, as a company blog post dated September 2017 said:
“We are excited to announce the initial discovery and integration discussion with the Lightning Network team for low-cost, instant transactions of Tether currencies on the Lightning Network.”
Bitfinex believes Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling solution, the Lightning Network, can improve the speed of USDT transactions and help further the coin’s adoption.
Towards the end of last year and the beginning of this one, Tether’s competition heated up with the launch of various other stablecoins, including USD Coin (USDC), TrueUSD (TUSD), PAX, and Gemini dollar (GUSD) – all launched exclusively on Ethereum.
As for Bitfinex’s USDT stablecoin, it’s now issued on the Omni Layer, Ethereum, TRON, and will soon launch on EOS’s blockchain.
Could Tether’s USDT launch on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network somehow benefit the second-layer protocol solution? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.