Lightspark Sync was Lightspark’s first Partner Summit on Thursday. The company unveiled new features and products that would allow global payments to be made with bitcoin or fiat.
It announced the launch of an alpha Spark version, which is a Bitcoin Layer 2 interoperable to Lightning. This allows users to switch to non-custodial Bitcoin layers at a lower cost.
Also, the company announced that it would be adding new services to its portfolio. UMAThe company’s open-source payment solution is compliant with regulatory requirements and makes it as easy to send money via email as it would be for a person.
UMA Extend can be used to bridge traditional banks around the world. UMA Auth, UMA Request and UMA Request allow UMA users to tip merchants, pay subscription fees, and send payments within their apps.
Spark — Lightspark’s Bitcoin Layer 2
Spark is an Layer 2 protocol that uses statechains to support Bitcoin. Users can send private keys (rather signing transactions) to transfer fractions of bitcoin that are held off-chain.
Lightspark developed Spark in order to support users better when they are onboarded to the Lightning Network. This requires a transaction on the chain for each payment channel, as well as the lock-up of a certain amount of Bitcoin on these channels to allow users to send and receive payments.
Layer 2 is a result of frustrations that Lightspark experienced when trying to develop a Lightning wallet without requiring users’ custody.
“Self-custodial Lightning wallets, especially at scale, just aren’t viable,” Lightspark CTO Kevin Hurley Tell Bitcoin Magazine.
“If you are opening channels for billions of users, fees are going to go through the roof, and you’re going to fill up block space. It’s just something that’s not going to be reasonable and you lock up liquidity for every single user,” He also added.
Hurley shared with us that Lightspark did not want to wait until Bitcoin Opcodes were enabled (such as CheckTemplateVerify and TapleafUpdateVerify), which would have made it more affordable to create new Lightning Channels. Lightspark was eager to provide users with a non custodial solution immediately.
Spark, their Bitcoin Layer 2, offers instant, cheap payments, as well as an unrestricted, one-way exit into the Bitcoin base layer. This allows offline receive or to be able to receive bitcoin when the device is not connected to the Internet.
Spark is also a user of atomic-swap technology. The design of the Spark is very similar to that used by Mercury Layer Hurley says that the technology is unique in that it allows for the transfer of Bitcoin UTXOs off-chain while allowing transactions to be almost instantaneous and free of charge.
“Mercury has a lot of core limitations that we go beyond,” Hurley, explained
“In Mercury, for example, you can transfer whole UTXOs only. You have absolute time bombs where you have to go back on chain at some absolute time. So, you can only do so many transactions. Also, we pull in different pieces like connector transactions from Ark, for example, but, other than that, we’re not similar to Ark at all,” He clarified.
“I think it’s hard to compare it to something, because it pulls in a lot of different components, and I think the trade-offs that we chose to make are different than many others probably chose to make.”
Spark allows users to create and use stablecoins in addition to bitcoin. You can also issue stablecoins through Taproot assets, LRC-20 The following are some examples of how to use RGB Then, transfer the Sparks to Spark.
The assets in Spark’s layer 2 have all been UMA-enabled.
“You can now have non-custodial users sending directly to the bank accounts of UMA Extend users,” Hurley referred to one of UMA’s new features.
UMA Extend
UMA Extend integrates Lightning Network into traditional banking systems to allow users to send international transfers within seconds. UMA Extend can now send an instantaneous cross-border transfer from one UMA Extend account to another via Lightning, just like sending an email.
“It’s designed to facilitate money movement across any currency,” Bitcoin Magazine interviewed Nicolas Cabrera from Lightspark. “I can be in Brazil sending my local currency, the Brazilian real, to a user based in Europe that wants to receive euros or someone in the US who wants to receive USD.”
Banks (or other entities) convert the Brazilian reals into sats after they leave the account of the sender. Zero HashThe recipient’s account is then converted back to euros or USD, depending on the currency held by the beneficiary. This all happens in less than 30 seconds, which is a dramatic change from the usual two-to-three days that international money transfers take to settle.
“This is the first time connecting the Lightning Network to traditional banking routes and bank systems,” Cabrera added.
UMA Extend uses Real-Time Payments (RTP)UMA Extend enables federally insured institutions to make real-time payments. Similar services are available in other countries where UMA Extend has been implemented. Extend is supported by all banks that use RTP in the US. Lightspark partners currently support 44 fiat currency on and off ramps in more than 100 countries.
The traditional financial institutions involved with these transactions will set the fees for the transactions, which tend to range between 0.25% and 0.5% — significantly cheaper than the 6.35% customers often pay Make international payments using traditional financial systems.
UMA Extend is available via this link.
UMA Auth
Lightspark presented UMA Auth during the event. It uses OAuth technology, an open standard protocol for authorization that allows secure access to a site or application.
UMA Auth is built with Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)It is a protocol developed by the team at Alby. NWC is now supporting UMA features such as multi-currency and registration of client apps.
“We wanted to expand the coverage of UMA beyond wallets to applications,” Bitcoin Magazine interviewed Shreya Vissamsetti.
“UMA Auth is a new extension on top of UMA that allows you to integrate payments directly into an application. The idea is that it’s a lot like OAuth, but for money,” She also added.
“All you have to do is input your UMA address and then we form a connection to your Lightspark wallet straight from the application. That gives the app access to communicate with your wallet and push money in right from the application.”
UMA Auth enables its users to pay for subscriptions, tip favorite artists or send a payment to a buddy through the messaging application of their choice.
“Say I’m listening to Taylor Swift,” Vissamsetti is a new start.
“I can link my UMA account, and if my favorite song is playing, I can just tap a button and send her a super small tip,” She explained.
“Tipping is one of the main uses we’re going after with this product,” Cabrera, said “Lightning is again a good foundation layer for us because it allows for sending small amounts.”
UMA Request
UMA Request, another UMA dimension, allows UMA users to ask for a payment.
UMA Request allows merchants to ask for payment via a bill, in the form a QR Code, that identifies the service or product rendered. UMA Request can also support zero-sum bills, where invoice recipients are able to pay what they want.
“Previously with UMA, the sender initiated the payment, but we’ve flipped it around,” Vissamsetti, said
UMA Request’s other feature is its ability to provide a transaction record for both parties.
UMA Request makes purchasing items online — especially across borders — easier and cheaper than using credit cards.
Looking Forward
David Marcus (former president of PayPal) believes it’s just a matter time before other banks and platforms adopt UMA Extend and UMA Auth.
“At the end of the day, if you build a more efficient network that enables global money movements to move faster, cheaper, in real time 24/7 with no blackout dates, then that’s where money is going to flow and the financial system and the ecosystem players are just going to need to adapt to that,” Marcus tells Bitcoin Magazine.
Lightspark is interested in receiving feedback on Spark from its users.
“We are going to fully engage with the community,” Hurley said.
“We want to make this completely out in the open, completely open-source. Anyone can audit it, spin up their own versions if they want to,” He also added.
“We want this to be a collaborative thing where the community joins in, where they hopefully submit pull requests and help find things that they want to improve.”
Christina Smedley also echoed Hurley’s words when she spoke about Spark and UMA’s new features.
“We’re trying to [onboard] the next billion or couple of billion,” Smedley spoke to Bitcoin Magazine. “so it’s really important that what we do is open-source and community-led.”
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
