Cash App Integrates Bitcoin's Lightning Network
While the company did not announce the news publicly, it was confirmed by some users after receiving an in-app message that read:
“We’ve just added Lightning Network. Use the fastest, free way to pay anyone in Bitcoin—just scan or send to a Lightning address.”
At the time of writing, it’s not clear as to how many users have received the new feature but reports confirmed that it's initially made available to iOS users and that Android users might have to wait for a little while.
The integration doesn’t come as a surprise considering Jack Dorsey, co-founder, and CEO of Block, who developed Cash App hinted at the integration during an interview alongside Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark in February 2019, noting that the addition was not a matter of 'not an ‘if,’ it’s more of a ‘when.'
Fast forward to November 2020, Steve Moser, the editor-in-chief of TheTapeDrive revealed that the latest update to Block’s (Square’s) Cash app shows evidence of Lightning Network integration and Bitcoin gifting.
Dorsey, who has maintained mum (for now) on the latest integration, has been showing support by liking tweets of Cash App users posting screenshots of their Lightning Network transactions on the payments app.
Lightning is a second-layer network on Bitcoin that allows transactions to be settled off-chain on P2P payment channels to reduce fees and improve transaction times.