On June 25th, the Brazilian digital bank Nubank announced its partnership with Lightspark to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network for its 100 million customers across Latin America.
According to Thomaz Fortes, a Crypto Director of Nubank, this partnership suits the company’s strategy in using blockchain technology to improve their financial services, especially when it comes to transaction rates and reduced costs for users at Nubank.
According to the announcement, Lightspark will be responsible for integrating the Bitcoin Lightning Network framework as a provider of Enterprise lightning network infrastructure.Â
David Marcus, former president of PayPal and co-founder of Lightspark, sees the partnership as a broad step towards the adoption and usage of Lightning Network.
Additionally, Nubank will also add a Universal Money Address (UMA) which is an email-like address for money transfers, as part of the implementation. This UMA feature aims to make it easy to send or receive payments.
Berkshire Hathaway-backed Nubank already offers trading services on 14 cryptocurrencies while setting aside one percent of its net assets for allocation into Bitcoin, aligning with its earlier deal with Circle by entering into strategic partnerships designed to expand access to USD Coin and improve capabilities in crypto trading space.
With a customer base primarily located in Brazil and expanding in Mexico and Colombia, Nubank’s adoption of the Lightning Network could have significant implications for cryptocurrency use in Latin America.
The region already sees substantial cryptocurrency trading volume in local currencies, and this integration may further accelerate digital finance adoption across the continent.
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