Lithuanian based crypto payments giant, Coingate will reportedly make it litecoin lightening payments possible for a 1000 merchants through its network. The Lithuanian crypto giant was the first payment processor to enable lightening Bitcoin payments in June of this year which was very well received.
The Lithuanian company was founded 4 years ago and has since been able to have over 50,000 customers and over 4000 merchants all over the globe accepting Bitcoin. The litecoin endorsement by Coingate was confirmed by litecoin creator Charlie lee via social media when he tweeted; Even Litecoin will soon have more than 1000 merchants accepting LN payments! Thanks @CoinGatecom!
Charles Lee’s tweet had been preceded by a tweet by Coingate which read, @litecoin community, we bear some exciting news! Our #Litecoin #LightningNetwork is ready to be deployed and will soon be live on CoinGate! Keep up with the news as we’re getting closer!
The Coingate network has grown in leaps and bounds from 1000 channels worth 4 BTC to over 16000 channels worth over 500 BTC. The network may still be in its infancy stage, but signs of increased adoption and testing are already on display, with people using it to make coffee payments as well as interaction with vending machines.
The litecoin has always been at the forefront of innovation, which makes the collaboration with Coingate the more significant. Litecoin has had technological milestones in the way of Segwit; atomic swaps were first tested on the litecoin network before adopting it into Bitcoin.
Litecoin is not only a test net for Bitcoin but also offers increased liquidity, enjoys extensive merchant adoption and also reaps the benefits of an established crypto network exchange penetration.
The Litecoin and Bitcoin lightening network may still be a long way from mainstream adoption, but merchants are increasingly applying the network, giving a sense that we will finally get there one day. Before full adoption can even be contemplated though, a lot of testing and improvements have to be made on the security side of the network as well as UI/UX side.