The crypto arm of the recently rebranded Square (now Block) has demonstrated its Lightning Development Kit (LDK) as it aims to turbocharge the Bitcoin network.
The team from Jack Dorsey’s Spiral published a video on Dec. 7 showcasing the capabilities of Bitcoin Lightning and the Lightning Development Kit (LDK).
LDK has been designed to allow developers to seamlessly plug their applications into the network on mobile devices and Point of Sale terminals.
LDK supports native APIs using Rust, C, Swift, Java, and Kotlin coding languages. This lets developers customize their wallet app for their users in the language of their choice while also removing the necessity for separate Bitcoin and LN wallets.
In the video, Twitter’s former CEO described the LDK as a program that “makes it easy for any developer in the world to build a wallet.”
We made a very short documentary about the Lightning Development Kit, our big project these last couple of years. We wanted a puppet to perform @jack’s parts but settled for actual @jack: https://t.co/q6eW4PDuNW
— Spiral (@spiralbtc) December 6, 2021
The video features a puppet Jack Dorsey interacting with store clerks and owners by paying for services with Lightning Network (LN). He uses his mobile LN wallet app to pay for a nose piercing and a movie ticket while the video periodically cuts to the Spiral team talking about the merits of Bitcoin and the LN.
Spiral, previously known as Square Crypto, has been developing Bitcoin wallet solutions since it was founded in 2019. In addition to the LDK, Spiral is working on the Bitcoin Development Kit which allows cross-platform mobile wallet interactions.
Lightning is a layer two scaling solution for Bitcoin which Spiral project manager Haley Berkoe says “turns Bitcoin into an actual payment system.”
Conor Okus from Spiral expects its LDK to increase the adoption of Bitcoin and the LN by “providing a way for people in different parts of the world … to store value and engage in economic activity.”
The product release comes at a fortuitous time for Lightning users as network nodes are at all-time highs. The last reading from Bitcoin Visuals shows that there are 18,905 nodes with active channels on the Lightning Network.
Over the last 3 months, the total number of nodes has grown by 23% with 3,534 new nodes being added. The LN currently has a network capacity of 3,285 BTC, or around $166 million according to 1ML.