Lightning Labs Launches Taro To Compete With SWIFT and Global Banks

Key Insights:

• Lightning Labs created protocol Taro will enable the global transaction capabilities for Bitcoin.
• Taro was made possible thanks to Bitcoin’s core ‘Taproot’ update.
• In places where Bitcoin’s volatility is a concern, Taro will act as a useful payment rail.

Bitcoin has always been painted as a great store of value asset, but over the last two years, that tag has been replaced with the emerging description of “medium of exchange”.

Despite the high prices and higher volatility, stores and merchants worldwide accept Bitcoin where regulations allow them to. And now, Lightning Labs intend on expanding that globally.

Here Comes Taro

In an announcement yesterday, Lightning Labs, the Lightning Network-focused company, revealed the new protocol Taro which will amplify Lightning Network’s capacity to reach individuals worldwide.

Lightning Network came into being as a Layer-2 solution to Bitcoin’s scalability problem enabling faster transactions on the network. Building on the same concept, Taro will enable the possibilities of issuing and transferring crypto assets, including the likes of stablecoins (Tether, etc.).

The protocol designed by the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Lightning Labs, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, aims to provide nearly free, virtually instant global transaction capacity to all the Lightning Network users while at the same time escaping Bitcoin’s volatility.

Commenting on the goal that Lightning Labs aims to achieve Taro, the company’s CEO Elizabeth Stark said,

“One of our core tenets at Lightning Labs is solving real problems for real people, and we’ve talked to myriad community members in emerging markets who’ve told us what a big difference stablecoins on bitcoin and Lightning would make in their economies.”

The way Taro would work is that in populations where people have a much more difficult time finding financial stability, the protocol would make for a good payment solution. Plus, Lightning Labs’ Pool product will also support liquidity for issued assets by the end of this year. Users can earn in USDT/BTC through the same, depending on which asset they hold their funds in.

This way, Taro will be acting as a competitor to both SWIFT and Commercial Banks.

Lightning Network Notes a Rise in Usage

This month, the number of unique nodes on the Lightning Network peaked at their all-time high of 83,930 as the duplicate channels slipped slightly.

But that did not affect the total Bitcoin capacity across all the channels, unique and duplicate. The cumulative Bitcoin present on these channels stood at 3,687 BTC, which amounts to approximately $161.5 million.

Thus farther reach of the network will only further increase the capacity and make Lightning Network more preferable over other means of transactions.