Building on Lightning with Ben Arc - WBD554

Ben Arc is a free open-source software advocate and founder of
LNbits. In this interview, we discuss how LNbits helps to
decentralize custodianship and how Bitcoin’s widescale utility
outweighs the environmental FUD.


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In April of this year, Arcane Research published the 2nd volume
of its “The State of Lightning” report. It showed adoption of the
payments system is growing rapidly. Transaction and usage data
indicate exceptional growth (e.g. since January 2021 capacity on
the Lightning network has increased by 450%). However, they don’t
provide the full picture: equally important is the flourishing
ecosystem.


There are well over a hundred companies working directly with
Lightning: developing operating systems, node and liquidity
services, wallets, payment infrastructure, financial services,
rewards programs, gaming, podcast/streaming and social media
payment options etc. etc. The investment such companies are
attracting is growing: the prize is access to the world's best
payment rail.


LNbits are providing the services of a Point of Sale payment and
accounting technology. Its founder, Ben Arc, started hacking
hardware to integrate Lightning functionality after attending the
very first Lightning hack day in 2018. Since then he has taken a
passion to contribute free open-source software for the
community, into a VC-funded business seeking to bring scalable
products to market.


LNbits already has a free open-source Lightning wallet/accounts
system with an array of extensions enabling users to create
paywalls, faucets, offline shops, and even a jukebox! But Ben
continues to hack hardware: he has created a Lightning ATM that
he provided a live demo of during the show. Those who attend Real
Bedford should soon be able to see one of these!


Ben is looking to help grow the adoption of a technology that can
provide freedom through decentralization. This will occur once we
make these technically sophisticated innovations easy to use, and
equally, easy to develop as open-source projects. Lightning is
the innovation that enables Bitcoin to scale, and LNbits is part
of the growing ecosystem we need to help Lightning to scale.