Santander, Spain’s largest bank, recently announced the launch of a Digital Assets 101 series for clients and investors. Bitcoin proponents were inspired by the bank’s writings, citing Santander’s arrival on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network as an example.
Lighting Network is a layer built on top of the most sensitive part of the bitcoin network that facilitates instant and reasonable bitcoin payments. Santander’s report cites third-party studies estimating that the Lightning Network can facilitate more than 1 million transactions at one time, to 20,000 at one time for classic card payment networks like VISA.
Shrader told me that companies like “MicroStrategy recognize the prospect of technology-based lightning,” rather than adopting them out of necessity for compliance purposes.
MicroStrategy CEO and former CEO Michael Saylor led bitcoin’s rate as MicroStrategy’s number one money reserve asset. Since then, MicroStrategy has announced plans to launch commercial lighting infrastructure and responses in 2023.
The Lightning Network is a promising generation that can help cope with some of the demanding situations bitcoin faces, such as scalability and efficiency. It has the prospect of making bitcoin more available to a wider diversity of users and making bitcoin more suitable for use in micropayments. As the Lightning Network continues to grow, it will most likely be a more widely used and accepted payment method.
It’s been a month for bitcoin with multiple EFT applications, positive developments in value, and new interest from Santander. This shifting sentiment towards bitcoin could be an indication of increased institutional demand, a sign that the tides are turning in the tumultuous bitcoin market.
Correction: A Santander representative reached out via email to explain that Santander’s Digital Assets 101 series is for educational purposes only and does not reflect the bank’s goal of pursuing a bitcoin strategy, nor is this educational series an endorsement of virtual assets as investment advice.