AlphaPoint goes live with full Lightning integration

AlphaPoint has extended its technical capacity with full Lightning integration for Bitcoin wallet transactions, which is implemented for broad use in El Salvador’s first national crypto wallet, Chivo. The Lightning Network is a decentralized Layer 2 network built with Bitcoin smart contracts to enable cheap and instant payments while retaining Bitcoin’s peer to peer nature.

Lightning has proven itself to be a viable BTC scaling solution as it minimizes transaction fees that once made the use of cryptocurrency for common everyday purchases like buying a cup of coffee cost-prohibitive.

With the deployment of AlphaPoint’s full Lightning integration and its unique functionalities, over 4 million of El Salvador’s Chivo users are able to transact with maximum efficiency. Lightning transactions can be as small as 1 satoshi (currently a fraction of a penny) for micropayments, with no protocol-enforced upper limit to the user’s spend amount. Lightning payments can be completed in a matter of seconds instead of regular BTC wait time of ~10 minutes or more, furthering Bitcoin’s practicality as currency with retail merchants. By using real Bitcoin transactions that rely on native smart-contract scripting language, Lightning network enabled Bitcoin wallets are now a proven means for creating a secure network of participants at a country-wide level which are able to transact at high volume and high speed.