Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark shared the developments made in this field. Stark announced the release of an early portion of the code in October and recently announced the successful first asset transfer on the Lightning Network. This development is an important indicator that Bitcoin can open the doors to digital dollar and fixedcoin transactions.

Stark noted that traditionally fixedcoins have been traded on other blockchains, which suffer from high fees and scalability issues. Bitcoin, on the other hand, can become one of the most suitable platforms for fixedcoins thanks to its “most secure and decentralized” blockchain structure.

Stark touched upon the critical role that Bitcoin and fixedcoins play as stores of value, especially in countries struggling with inflation and depreciating fiat currencies. He emphasized that fixedcoin usage has increased significantly since the COVID-19 outbreak and that these users mostly come from emerging markets.

“The most passionate users have been those looking for a stable store of value. In some cases they prefer Bitcoin, in other cases they turn to fixedcoins, and some even use both.” Stark explained.

An interesting data point in this context is that the total US Treasury bond holdings of leading fixedcoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are even greater than those of major nations such as Germany and South Korea. This occurs because fixedcoins peg their value to the US dollar. However, Stark emphasizes that investors do not benefit from these bond incomes. This shows that the search for a stable store of value has led to the use of fixedcoins, especially in countries facing economic instability.

With the tremendous growth of the fixedcoin market, the need to mine these assets and real-world assets on the Bitcoin blockchain is increasing. Lightning Labs is developing infrastructure to meet exactly this need.

“That’s why we’re developing this protocol, this technology right now. We’re not issuing assets, we’re actually creating a kind of rail. Institutions that are issuing assets will use our technology to tokenize assets in the real world,” Stark said. He explained the role of Lightning Labs.

Thanks to this innovation, financial institutions will be able to issue gold assets, fixedcoins and other fiat-backed assets on Bitcoin and transfer them quickly and at low costs over the Lightning Network.

One of the most exciting points is the cost advantage. Drawing attention to the high fees in traditional payment systems, Stark said, “In the USA, fees for transactions made with Visa can be over 3% or even over 1%. Transacting with fixedcoins via the Lightning Network can be dramatically lower cost, down to one cent.” or less.” said.

This could allow people to transact on a global scale with much lower fees than traditional networks. Although Lightning Labs’ Taproot asset protocol is still in development, it has the potential to significantly change the future of Bitcoin. Bitcoin can gain a stronger position in the digital value storage and transfer space with the integration of fixedcoins and tokenized assets. While this innovation facilitates the use of cryptocurrencies in our daily lives, it can also offer an alternative solution to traditional financial systems.