Twitter Unveils New Bitcoin Payment Option for Users

Twitter is unveiling a new “bitcoin pay” option that will allow as many as 330 million active users to send BTC funds between each other.

Twitter Will Allow Users to Exchange Bitcoin with Each Other

The company is going to harness the power of the Lightning Network to initiate this feat. The Network has garnered a solid reputation in recent years thanks to its ability to take payments and transactions off-chain. Many smaller bitcoin transactions are bogging down the blockchain, leading to slower speeds and congestion. The Lightning Network was designed to deal with this problem and allow for small crypto trades to occur off-chain so speeds could at least remain the same for larger transactions.

Many are claiming that the recent news surrounding Twitter is likely what’s allowing bitcoin to remain somewhat stable when it comes to its price. The currency fell to about $42,000 over the weekend not long after China announced that it was ending all bitcoin transactions and related activity within its borders. The country has deemed all digital currency transactions illegal, and thus traders cannot engage in virtual token trades without facing legal consequences.

The currency dropped from $44,000 following this news, though the currency has since shot back up into the $43,000 range, and many believe Twitter is “to blame.”

In a video announcing the Twitter launch, Jack Mallers – CEO and founder of Strike – explained:

We just made an instant, free remittance payment from Chicago, Illinois, USA to San Salvador, El Salvador over Twitter. Why would anyone ever use Western Union again? When you take one of the world’s largest social internet networks, and you combine it with the world’s best open monetary network, Twitter accidentally becomes one of the best remitting experiences in the world.

While Twitter itself has never taken any serious stance surrounding bitcoin (in fact, it has been at the center of a few bitcoin scams), its founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has. Not long ago, at a bitcoin conference occurring in Florida, Dorsey announced that his company Square was working on establishing a new decentralized digital currency exchange, and that traders could potentially enjoy anonymous trades without the prying eyes of third parties.

Square Loves Its Crypto

In addition, Square was also one of the first major institutions to ever invest in bitcoin and add it to its balance sheet. The company purchased approximately $50 million worth of the asset in October of last year and added another $120 million to its stash several months later, bringing its total to approximately $170 million by mid-2021.

Dorsey has also expressed an interest in bringing bitcoin to Africa. A few years back, he announced that he was preparing for a three to six-month period of travel throughout the continent so that he could educate the region’s people on bitcoin and bring them better access to the crypto industry.

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