This is an exciting week, we have partnered with Bitwage to help process the first salary payment on Lightning. When the team at Bitwage reached out asking for a key infrastructure provider for their nodes we were thrilled to help them achieve such an endeavor. This is the first step to bring payroll, HR, and invoicing into layer-2 of Bitcoin.
The first individual who received Lightning payouts for their salary was Bernard Parah, the CEO of Pan African Bitcoin-native fintech company Bitnob. In Bernards's home country of Nigeria, they are suffering from rampant inflation and a politically charged monetary policy that does not best serve its citizens.
The second individual is professional soccer player Alex Crognale of the United Soccer League's Birmingham Legion. This officially makes Crognale the first-ever athlete to get paid completely over Lightning.
Voltage and Bitwage both believe that payroll will be a very important part of the Lightning ecosystem. By getting paid in Lightning users are not subject to on-chain fees. To create a lightning channel you must pay an on-chain fee to open. This creates an opportunity where individuals can get paid in Bitcoin and never have to interact with the base layer or its fees.
Lightning payroll will allow Bitwage to create inbound liquidity for merchants while also allowing people on the receiving end to keep more funds on Lightning. This will create more liquidity and scalability throughout Lightning channels, ushering in a new way to enable Lightning for the mainstream.
The vision of Lightning payroll is so that any user can utilize the wallet of their choice and get paid their salary, then spend it immediately with any merchant connected to the network. Bitwage payroll is available to individuals and businesses. You can sign up at Bitwage.com.
Large thanks to Acinq and Wallet of Satoshi as well who helped users receive the payroll transaction. Keep innovating, cheers!
If you have any questions or comments either email us at support@voltage.cloud, use our live on-site chat, or join us in Discord. ⚡️
