bitcoin

🌊 #006 Feel the Breez - The Latest Updates at Breez ⚡️

Breez have announced ten new partners that have integrated bitcoin payments with the Breez SDK.

***

# 

![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/1*WmY9X-OHVP6JGQX1bhlCwA.jpeg)

We’ve told you that [bitcoin payments are here and expanding rapidly](https://breez.technology/report/), but did you ever wonder how we knew? It’s one thing to go out and do a bunch of research on an ongoing phenomenon, but it’s another to intuit what’s worth researching in the first place. You need a special perspective to detect a trend when it’s global and decentralized.

We have a special perspective. At Breez, we know that bitcoin payments are a big deal, we build tech to facilitate them, and prospective partners are practically kicking our door down. [It’s that momentum](https://blog.breez.technology/breez-has-been-building-momentum-and-were-just-getting-started-06cf97c272ab) we’ve been talking about. When inquiries about your SDK for bitcoin payments are coming as fast as you can answer them, it’s easy to infer that you are chilling on the tip of a very big iceberg.

This entirely new scale is also why we’re introducing a cohort of new partners at once. If we were to present each individually, we’d need to write a book each quarter. So instead, enjoy these brief profiles of the companies that have implemented the Breez SDK in the last several weeks. Note the breadth of verticals they represent: an AI company, payment apps, a collaboration app, trading apps, and tipping. These are businesses, not hobbies. They’re evidence that the bitcoin economy is self-sustaining and growing.

We’re proud of the SDK and proud of these new partners, and we can’t wait to grow with them.

# **Assetify**

**Bringing bitcoin to P2P lending with Assetify**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*Rob2MuMfonuFiS0K)

Crowdfunding is a great idea, but not everyone wants to exchange their money for an autograph or a celebrity dinner. Why not share an idea that needs funding and obtain decentralized loans from a community of users? Why not indeed, asked [Assetify](https://www.assetify.net/), where users can use their crypto as collateral to obtain and make loans to earn a return on their stack.

Assetify is using the Breez SDK to let their users move bitcoin to where it does the most good. This is exactly the kind of interaction where the bitcoin economy, boosted by Lightning and our SDK, excels beyond anything fiat can manage.

# **Cowbolt**

**Compensating and collaborating with colleagues and communities on Cowbolt**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*Uq6BLVkLod_Z7KmM)

Collaboration is built on communication and compensation. To do things together, teammates, colleagues, family members, and friends need to be able to share plans and results, and then to share costs and rewards. [Cowbolt](https://cowbolt.com/) brings these two functions together, combining private chats with peer-to-peer payments.

With the Breez SDK, the complexity of adding bitcoin payments was no longer an issue, so they could focus on perfecting the design and functionality of their iOS and Android apps as well as the browser extension, which just launched. Our collaboration with Cowbolt has been as easy as collaborating *in* Cowbolt.

# **DexTrade**

**A trading app to make AML-compliant swaps across chains**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*2jokhgQwE4ow8nkc)

If centralized exchanges are how crypto has reinvented banks, then decentralized, P2P coin exchanges are the bitcoin-friendly alternative. [DexTrade P2P](https://p2p.dextrade.com/) is just that: a decentralized way for users to exchange tokens across chains with trustless atomic swaps.

DexTrade P2P has integrated the Breez SDK to give their 15,000 (and growing) global users quicker, cheaper bitcoin payments. The SDK has improved their UX and led to more transactions.

# **Flash**

**A bitcoin payment app tailor made to help merchants get paid**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*6XCtTRgxF57NRtnx)

Ever more merchants are accepting bitcoin payments for their retail sales. For those holdouts who still fear that accepting bitcoin might be too complex, [Flash](https://paywithflash.com/) has launched a self-custodial bitcoin wallet tailored specifically to merchants’ needs.

The Breez SDK lets Flash users accept bitcoin and, crucially, USDT, so the prices the merchants quote are as stable as the greenback for any customer who prefers a stablecoin. Flash will soon enable offline payments, giving all their users access to the feature that has long been the holy grail of Lightning development.

# **Lightning Pay**

**A wallet to move your bitcoin from the Shire to Mordor**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*RqrN4TuipItzYpia)

While most bitcoin businesses are inherently global, it can still be nice to have a local presence that understands local needs, opportunities, and constraints. [Lightning Pay](https://lightningpay.nz/) is a global wallet with a local presence in New Zealand, home of great rugby, some of the world’s awesomest birds, hobbits, and passionate bitcoiners.

Using the Breez SDK has helped Lightning Pay grow their user base by 20% each month, and each month those users move a billion sats. When our partners grow, bitcoin adoption grows.

# **OpenAgents**

**An AI assistant meets a bitcoin wallet, decentralizing the market for AI services**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*QohDd76usLHXl2HE)

While the AI ventures that dominate the headlines — OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic — are themselves dominated by centralized big-tech funding, [OpenAgents](https://openagents.com/) is bitcoinizing AI by adding *actual* openness, decentralization, and inclusiveness to the biggest tech innovation since bitcoin itself. [Onyx](https://openagents.com/onyx), OpenAgents’ consumer app, is like a “personal JARVIS”: a voice-driven assistant designed to replace Alexa or Siri paired with a built-in self-custodial bitcoin wallet and Nostr integration. It connects to a decentralized marketplace where developers can build AI tools and get paid in bitcoin.

The payment infrastructure underlying OpenAgents’ decentralized marketplace is, of course, based on bitcoin and runs the Breez SDK. Building AI as a permissionless, borderless, trustless technology, like bitcoin, is the best guarantor for a free and decentralized future with AI-driven productivity and bitcoin-powered payments for everyone.

# **Satoshi App**

**Removing the boundaries between fiat and bitcoin**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*fNIcvv6f0vwhor2Y)

Most of us still use fiat for some purposes and bitcoin whenever possible, but doing so typically requires different apps with different constraints and different interfaces. [Satoshi App](https://satoshi.money/) combines both a custodial bank account for USD and BTC with a self-custodial Lightning wallet. It’s a beautiful instance of finding a problem people experience and solving it.

Since Satoshi App lets users pay over Lightning and Liquid, the Breez SDK was the right choice, as it moves seamlessly between the two.

# **Shakesco**

**The bitcoin wallet that does so much more**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*GBfQQX8uIMcpjrq2)

The term [*wallet* has always been a poor fit](https://blog.breez.technology/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-lightning-wallet-dc9ac46d32) for what these apps do. In the case of [Shakesco](https://shakesco.com/), it’s woefully inadequate. Far more than just a place to store pocket money, Shakesco lets users buy and sell bitcoin and ethereum, make private payments, manage recurring payments, set up team payouts, and more. Shakesco is as far from a leather wallet as a chuckwagon is from the Millennium Falcon.

Decentralizing P2P financial services, as Shakesco does, is exactly in line with the bitcoin ethos, and it’s exactly the sort of purpose we built the Breez SDK to serve.

# **Tidebinder**

**Bitcoin payments for businesses of all sizes**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*rAgBZmbWuI7m2Foq)

What if you want a one-stop shop that can service a diverse range of businesses in different verticals? [Tidebinder](https://tidebinder.com/) provides self-custodied bitcoin wallets for SMBs, banks, and fintechs alike.

Tidebinder uses the Breez SDK, which shows that our Lightning infrastructure can work at any scale, just like Tidebinder’s end-user products. Your scale is their scale is our scale.

# **ZapZap**

**A tipping app for rewarding awesome creations (and silly things too)**

[](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:933/0*Mf19GnwFM3MEYAuP)

Tipping is a vital component of the creator economy. It’s the practical reflection of the pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth ethos, and it’s [ZapZap](https://zap-zap.me/)’s specialty. ZapZap lets users “Tip people who say awesome things” on X, and it’s proudly “the silliest way to tip small amounts!” How silly? When asked about ZapZap’s most meaningful statistics and key performance indicators, they answered that the modal tip amounts are 69 and 420 sats. Never change, ZapZap.

Launched just a couple of months ago, ZapZap has already attracted thousands of users worldwide. They’re also planning on expanding their offering from tips on tweets and memes to a pay-per-media model, and the Breez SDK is as scalable as they are, if slightly less silly.

# **Got a Case of FOMO? Good. You Should.**

Are you running a company that could use a dose of bitcoin payments that you can implement in just a few days? Good. You sound like someone we’d like to team up with. You already found the solution. Now [get in touch](https://breez.technology/sdk/) for help in implementing it.

Breez Announce 10 New Partners To Add Lightning ⚡️

lightning

# Features and Bug fixes
* Add seed support to ConnectRequest
* Improve realtime sync and restore
* Update built packages to Uniffi 0.28

New Release:  Breez SDK - Nodeless 0.7.2 ⚡️

# New: Breez SDK - Nodeless Tutorial
Breez have released a [new tutorial](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU5Dk7xLNHcQEzKPpjBJYqQRSpfQfFhml&si=gEgtEoF8U5N3EcYm) for developers looking to integrate the **Breez SDK - Nodeless** into **React Native & Expo** apps.

Antonio from Breez runs you through how to *connect to the SDK*, *interact with the SDK*, *send payments*, *receive payments*, and *list payments*.

If you're building with Flutter — here's the tutorial that @dangeross produced last year ([see post for more info](https://stacker.news/items/784896)).

Let us know what you think and how we can further help builders!

***

### Videos
* [Introduction](https://youtu.be/Tn00PKXMjUw?si=5y5eXApCCgWse7oL) 
* [Connect to the SDK](https://youtu.be/ZTqiIqnRcZo?si=IHX1z5VE93v1cws2)
* [Interacting with the SDK](https://youtu.be/37BkZSbc7HM?si=rR3tfa5Lx_SUV2ir)
* [Receiving Payments](https://youtu.be/_S37YNSoq38?si=LrEhH8v6eCempndt)
* [Listing Payments](https://youtu.be/cWkCj0bydVY?si=JN4jjm8o6gCGrISG)
* [Sending Payments](https://youtu.be/8eNwW_nKFtg?si=uhMxlW2_wSix3rUj)

###  References
* [Demo Repository](https://github.com/breez/liquid-sdk-rn-demo)
* [Breez SDK - Nodeless Repository](https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid)
* [Breez SDK - Nodeless Documentation](https://sdk-doc-liquid.breez.technology/)

If you're looking to learn more about the SDK, [send us a message](https://breez.technology/sdk/).

New Breez SDK - Nodeless: Workshop & Tutorial for React Native & Expo Apps ⚡️

deleted by author

Breez SDK - Nodeless: Flutter Workshop + Video Tutorial ⚡️

Hey @spraveenitpro - here's the react native tutorial.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU5Dk7xLNHcQEzKPpjBJYqQRSpfQfFhml&si=KuHTgY3v36GSHQgC

Here's @roy's latest piece on USDT on Lightning.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/usdt-on-lightning-the-good-the-bad-and-the-unknown

***

# USDT on Lightning: the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown

Everyone has heard the C̵h̵i̵n̵e̵s̵e̵ ̵p̵r̵o̵v̵e̵r̵b̵ British misquote: “[May you live in interesting times](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/12/18/live/),” and how it’s supposed to be a curse. It sounds deep, like a quote for edgelords over 80.

But have you ever considered the alternative? According to the [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle](https://thijsporck.com/2020/09/15/when-medieval-chroniclers-have-nothing-to-report-the-years-190-381-in-the-anglo-saxon-chronicle/), there were nearly two centuries where nothing much happened. [Vivian Mercier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Mercier) famously called *Waiting for Godot* “a play in which nothing happens, twice.” But nothing happening 191 times? I’ll take interesting times any day.

And that’s exactly what we have now. [Tether](https://tether.to/en/), with their stablecoin [USDT](https://tether.io/news/tether-brings-usdt-to-bitcoins-lightning-network-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-unstoppable-technology/), is [coming to Lightning](https://lightning.engineering/posts/2025-01-30-Tether-on-Lightning/). We’ve been talking a lot recently about how [Lightning is the common language of the bitcoin economy](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-the-common-language-of-the-bitcoin-economy-eb8515341c11) and how [bitcoin is a medium of exchange](https://medium.com/breez-technology/bitcoins-false-dichotomy-between-sov-and-moe-18e3f968a643) (and [it really is; read our report](https://breez.technology/report/)).

These two arguments now seem to be converging. Thanks to Lightning working as a common language, it makes bitcoin interoperable with a wide range of adjacent technologies, like USDT. And USDT is going to turbocharge bitcoin into new use cases, new markets, and new challenges on a scale that the Lightning ecosystem has yet to experience.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*gkkcwh-AlNb8lsWv

Given the choice, I’d rather dive head first into the unknown than spend the afternoon on the couch. All the cool stuff is in the unknown. (Image: [pxhere](https://c.pxhere.com/photos/d9/f9/skydiving_jump_falling_parachuting_military_training_high_people-747005.jpg!d))

USDT on Lightning is terra incognita. Interesting times indeed. So let’s think about what it means for USDT to join Lightning and for Lightning to move USDT — the opportunities, the risks, and the wide open questions.

# **Taproot Assets 101**

Lightning was originally intended to increase the throughput of the bitcoin blockchain, so bitcoin was to be its only cargo. [Taproot Assets is a new protocol](https://lightning.engineering/posts/2024-07-23-taproot-assets-LN/) that allows fungible assets (e.g. stablecoins) to be transmitted over Lightning as hashed metadata piggybacking on the same infrastructure used to process bitcoin payments.

The way it works is pretty simple for anyone who understands Lightning. The recipient generates an invoice that pings edge nodes (i.e. the nodes connecting users to the broader network) for exchange rates between bitcoin and the asset in question — USDT in the current case. Once the user accepts an edge node’s exchange rate, they generate an invoice for the payment and send it to the payer. The payer sends the asset to the edge node on their own side, the edge node converts everything into a normal-looking bitcoin payment, the payment proceeds through routing nodes along the network as usual, the edge node on the recipient’s end converts the payment back into the original asset (USDT) and forwards it to the recipient.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1338/0*ExFhrn-cMtv6_MhE

Alice is paying Bob. An indeterminate number of routing nodes can forward the payment between the edge nodes, but they only see BTC in transit.

Taproot Assets leverages the versatility of Lightning and bitcoin to let users transfer new kinds of assets over the network, using bitcoin as the universal medium of exchange. One corollary of all the nodes speaking Lightning is that any routing nodes between the edge nodes see only BTC in transit. Lightning tells them how to move BTC, and that’s all they’re doing as far as they know. Awesome.

But there’s more to it than just technical specs. USDT is, after all, a massive medium of exchange. [Tens of billions of USDT](https://usdt.tokenview.io/en/charts) value change hands every day spread across millions of payments. Its daily trading volumes are in the same ballpark as the Brazilian real and the Indian rupee. This is a big deal. So what does Lightning mean for USDT, and what does the addition of USDT mean for Lightning?

# **The Good**

## **… for Bitcoin**

So far, much of the strategy for bitcoinizing commerce has focused on orange pilling as many people as possible and growing [the circular economy](https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/btc-circular-economies/) one user at a time. This strategy has perhaps reached the [limits of its scale](https://medium.com/breez-technology/orange-pilling-has-stopped-working-4a407252c7a3). The circle has grown massively in the last decade and a half, but it’s still limited, and we need to think in terms of millions at a time.

Now that USDT and BTC are natively interoperable on Lightning, the circle has gained tangents. With USDT on Lightning, each party to a payment — the payer and the recipient — can choose whether to use BTC or USDT on their own end, and neither depends on the other’s decision. A customer can pay in BTC, and the merchant can receive USDT. Or the customer can pay in USDT, and the merchant can receive BTC. Or they can both use the same asset. *It doesn’t matter*. Once both assets are native to Lightning, they become automatically, frictionlessly interchangeable. Everyone is free to opt for bitcoin’s advantages as a medium of exchange grown from the bottom up by the users or for USDT’s advantages as an asset whose price is as stable as US monetary policy and Tether’s liquid reserves.

Lightning and, by extension, bitcoin stand to gain [millions of users](https://tether.io/news/how-many-usdt-users-are-there/) and billions of dollars worth of spending power. It’s a qualitative extension of bitcoin’s utility. The new use cases will do more good for bitcoin than a boatload of orange pills. It’s also potentially a quantitative explosion for Lightning. Many of those new users might not even know that they’re using Lightning thanks to its efficacy as the [common language of the bitcoin economy](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-the-common-language-of-the-bitcoin-economy-eb8515341c11). But we ol’ school Lightning vets know. This is what we’ve been building towards.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*_Tc5m-oT91MueHc_

A circle is a beautiful thing, but a circle with innumerable tangents reaching out is breathtaking. (Image: [Todd Quackenbush](https://unsplash.com/photos/time-lapse-photography-of-led-waters-eStCg6FRw_E?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash))

Further, USDT integration could make Lightning easier for American users to access. American tax regulation [treats BTC like an equity](https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/crypto-tax-rate), making each payment a potentially complex concatenation of tax events. But if US users can access Lightning with an asset that never incurs capital gains, then they’ll have access to many of Lightning’s advantages without one of its particular regulatory drawbacks.

## **…for Tether**

Tether typically issues USDT on proven blockchains that have achieved significant market traction, and they have [no interest in launching their own](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/tether-ceo-paolo-ardoino-denies-rumors-of-launching-a-blockchain/ar-AA1yxxCg). USDT is [currently available on](https://tether.to/en/faqs/) Algorand, Celo, Cosmos, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Solana, Tezos, Ton, and Tron. Note that these are all proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains (except Liquid, which uses a federation), so they’re necessarily more centralized than bitcoin.

These blockchains also face different tradeoffs. Ethereum is relatively decentralized for a PoS blockchain, but its [transaction fees are notoriously high](https://nowpayments.io/blog/ethereum-transaction-fees-are-too-high-what-should-i-do). Tron is cheaper. Perhaps that’s why, [according to one estimate](https://okhlopkov.com/usdt-popularity-across-different-blockchains/), nearly 7x more monthly active retail USDT users opt for Tron over Ethereum and send 8x more retail volume over Tron. But [Tron is notoriously centralized](https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/tron-is-a-highly-centralized-project-ex-cto-says/), making it a choke point for USDT. If Tron were to fail, Tether would lose something like half of its total capacity across all blockchains. Ouch. By allowing USDT to be transacted over Lightning, which is inherently decentralized, Tether mitigates their dependency on cheap, centralized blockchains.

And just as USDT can facilitate American access to Lightning, Lightning could make USDT much more convenient to use in the US market. US exchanges sometimes limit USDT transactions to certain blockchains. For example, [Coinbase says](https://www.coinbase.com/en-de/price/tether) “Coinbase only supports USDT on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-20). Do not send USDT on any other blockchain to Coinbase.” Lightning gives big exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken (which already support Lightning today) a decentralized alternative for USDT payments to offer their users.

# **The Bad**

The new American administration has mooted onshoring the entire stablecoin industry and suggested that regulating it is their “[first priority](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/money-report/white-house-crypto-czar-david-sacks-says-first-priority-is-stablecoin-legislation/3665689/).” In other words, they’ll be paying very close attention to every development. As long as stablecoins like USDT are pegged to the dollar, those who control the dollar and profit from it will want to control the stablecoins too.

Regulators think they can even improve on freedom by regulating it. They can’t help it. It’s in their nature. But it follows that, as USDT gains utility on Lightning and Lightning gains utility as a means to move USDT, we’re all going to be attracting greater scrutiny from regulators. It’s hard to say how much they’ll actually be able to do or what they’re going to try, but it won’t be any fun. Regulation is always friction.

One area that’s likely to attract regulatory scrutiny is the edge nodes. Conventional centralized exchanges tend to be subject to KYC/AML rules in many jurisdictions. If the edge nodes will be automatically exchanging USDT and BTC and forwarding payments, they might also look a lot like conventional exchanges to [regulators, who tend not to like decentralization](https://medium.com/breez-technology/why-bitcoin-needs-to-become-a-medium-of-exchange-80d5c9e1de65). 🙄

# **The Unknown**

## **What’s It Cost? What’s It Worth?**

While Lightning does offer users and USDT some significant benefits, it’s not obviously the best all-around solution for every payment involving USDT. Lightning users expect low fees. So do USDT users who use centralized blockchains and custodial exchanges. But adding a second asset to Lightning adds some financial considerations that everyone — routing nodes, users, and especially edge nodes — will have to reckon with.

First, the edge nodes are providing the typical services of LSPs — keeping users connected to the network with enough channels and enough liquidity to keep those payments moving — *in addition* to converting between assets. That conversion is a valuable service that deserves compensation, and it can also be risky (see below).

Second, USDT is likely to increase transaction volume considerably, which means that LSPs and routing nodes will have to keep more liquidity on the network to forward those payments. They don’t take the same shortcut as custodial exchanges, which just have to update their internal ledgers. The [economics of liquidity allocation](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-economics-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-inbound-liquidity-511d05aa8b8b) still apply, only more so.

Will Lightning be able to compete with centralized exchanges like Tron for USDT payments? The answer will probably resemble the answer to most questions about matching technologies with use cases: each technology will have certain strengths and weaknesses that recommend it for certain use cases and not others. As usual, the market will figure it out. However, since the technology wasn’t tailored to this particular use case, price discovery will be a process of trial and error, which takes time.

## **Free Call Options? Uh oh.**

Edge nodes face the risk of the “[free-call-option problem](https://diyhpl.us/~bryan/irc/bitcoin/bitcoin-dev/linuxfoundation-pipermail/lightning-dev/2018-December/001752.txt),” which is interesting enough to merit its own discussion here. This is a new risk, and it’s inherent to any situation involving two assets in a single Lightning payment.

Lightning payments need to be completed within a certain time in order to be settled, or the invoice cancels automatically. That time is the “T” in [HTLCs](https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/how-do-htlc-work-lightning-network) — hashed, time-locked contracts.

When the edge nodes bid with their exchange rates for a USDT↔BTC payment, they calculate their bids based on parameters like their current liquidity situation *and the spot price*. But the users have a window between accepting the edge node’s bid and the expiration of the HTLC in which to settle the payment. Prices can move in that window. If I initiate a USDT payment at one rate, then I can wait until the rate moves in my favor before I release the preimage to settle it. If the rate moves against me, I simply don’t release the preimage. In that case, the edge node might initiate a channel closure to redeem their funds, but that’s a slow (and therefore costly) process. If it moves in my favor, the edge node is on the hook for the difference. Heads, I lose nothing. Tails, I fleece the edge node.

Payments involving any combination of assets on Lightning give the user a [call option](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/calloption.asp). Traditional financial institutions manage their downside risk in selling call options by adding the risk to the price. These options can get very expensive for unprepared edge nodes. [Just ask Kilian and Michael at Boltz](https://medium.com/boltzhq/the-problem-with-free-options-69f9f59a2d48), who originally brought this whole issue to my attention and had the class to describe it for all of us in the ecosystem. The alternative is for the edge nodes to price the call option into their quotes, just like traditional financial institutions. Intertemporal arbitrage is great work if you can get it.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*un_UZ3oV2jyR105Z

How many early Lightning devs and budding LSPs expected that they’d have to worry about hedging built-in call options in 2025? (Image: [Nick Chong](https://unsplash.com/photos/black-flat-screen-computer-monitor-N__BnvQ_w18?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash))

Users aren’t the only source of concern for edge nodes either. If a routing node fails to forward the preimage — whether through intent or malfunction — the edge node could still be on the hook. At least with routing nodes, it might be possible to implement some form of reputation system to help choose the route. However, a reputation system for end users might not be feasible as new users will be constantly joining the network.

The free call options have never been a problem for Lightning until now because the network has only dealt with a single asset: bitcoin. If the free-option problem became serious enough, one could imagine multiple parallel, single-currency Lightning Networks emerging. One for bitcoin. One for USDT. Another for … If bitcoin gets cut out of the loop, we will lose the benefit of bitcoin interoperability. We might even wind up regretting bringing USDT onto Lightning in the first place.

# **We’re in It for the Interesting Times**

Bitcoin was always meant to be revolutionary. Disrupting broken fiat is the whole point and always has been. We’re in it for the revolution. We know that change and disruption was never going to be a smooth process.

But change is a good thing. Progress is just a kind of change that people welcome. We welcome USDT on Lightning because we see the opportunity. It can represent progress for USDT users, for Lightning, and for bitcoin.

Like any change, though, it’s going to require careful thought, preparation, sharp instincts, and quick reactions. You don’t go into uncharted territory without the right gear and a few skills. Anyone in the Lightning liquidity business is going to face some new challenges, but also stands to make some big gains.

Tether stands to gain an economical, decentralized distribution network and better access to the vital US market. Lightning stands to gain a massive infusion of liquidity and users. Bitcoin will be natively interoperable with USDT. That’s why there’s so much excitement.

But regulators are watching. And edge nodes will only offer the indispensable conversion services if doing so is profitable, not ruinous. So let’s approach this change as we do all new developments in Lightning: by thinking hard, designing carefully, hardening our code, preparing the market, and never losing sight of our ultimate goal, which is to realize the universal bitcoin economy.

***

USDT on Lightning: the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown ⚡️ - Roy Sheinfeld, Breez

bitcoin_beginners

Are bitcoins meant for spending or savings?

expatriotic

Recommend this article from @roy on bitcoin's false dichotomy between SoV and MoE: https://stacker.news/items/726256

And at Breez, we just released this report that dives into this subject too: https://x.com/Breez_Tech/status/1887518233432822182

For more details on our latest release check out the notes here: 
https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid/releases/tag/0.7.1

***

# Breez SDK - Nodeless 0.7.1

## Features and Bug Fixes
* Support [multiple Liquid assets](https://sdk-doc-liquid.breez.technology/guide/assets.html) with built in support for USDT
* Faster payments & instant SDK initialization
* [Drain all funds](https://sdk-doc-liquid.breez.technology/guide/lnurl_pay.html#draining-all-funds) is now also available via LNURL-Pay
* Automatically remove replaceable push notifications
* Add an event for refundable swaps
* Real-time sync optimizations
* Support [regtest](https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid/tree/main/regtest)
* Added a seed passphrase option to ConnectRequest

You can learn more about the nodeless implementation [here](https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid
).

New Release: Breez SDK - Nodeless 0.7.1

🌊 #005 Feel the Breez

Bitcoin Payments: From Digital Gold to Everyday Currency

hey @k00b - we're looking to expand it for the next version, as it is not exhaustive. Will make sure to have SN on there! Thanks for the support ⚡️

Bitcoin isn’t just "digital gold" — it’s an everyday currency reaching millions around the world.

In our new report, Bitcoin Payments: From Digital Gold to Everyday Currency, Breez and 1A1z explore how bitcoin payments are transforming how people move money across industries, geographies, and use cases. The ecosystem is growing fast, already reaching over 650 million people, showing that bitcoin payments aren’t a thing of the future — they’re already here.

You can read the full report on our website: https://breez.technology/report/

Breez has raised $5M to bring bitcoin payments to every app ⚡️

you can keep up-to-date with developments here: https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid

Repost from Breez's Medium.


## Breez Has Been Building Momentum, and We’re Just Getting Started


Technology and money are always in motion. Today’s technologies are just tools to build those of tomorrow, and money is also called *currency* because it has to flow. Stasis is anathema.

The opposite of stasis isn’t exactly motion. [A tap dancer](https://youtu.be/eHSKqsFV1oQ?t=49) can move a lot without going anywhere. No, the opposite of stasis is more like *momentum*. Momentum is motion with two very important qualities: mass (the stuff that’s moving) and velocity (how fast it’s going and where).

*Momentum* is a word that has come up a lot in our recent discussions about what Breez has done and what we have planned. This couldn’t be more appropriate, since we’re combining two things that require constant motion, and we’re adding mass and velocity.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*kF5pv-7ne6QxRHIV

Mass and velocity. (Effort and teamwork help too!) (Image: [Indira Tjokorda](https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-blue-tank-top-and-yellow-helmet-riding-on-orange-and-black-motorcycle-Y-VYK0SDLxs?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash))

# **Velocity**

Velocity combines speed and direction, and our direction is clear. We’re expanding access to borderless, trustless, permissionless, self-custodied money and peer-to-peer payments. Not only will this enhance freedom for all of us from the centibillionaires to the unbanked, it is facilitating entirely [new business models and economic relations](https://medium.com/breez-technology/its-time-to-short-subscriptions-and-go-long-on-lightning-a89c83820ef5) that outdated, intermediated, centralized fiat payments prohibit. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., the arc of history is long, but it bends toward freedom. That is our direction.

If liberating people and their money through technology is our direction, then the Breez SDK is our vehicle. Leveraging Lightning and [compatible technologies](https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-the-common-language-of-the-bitcoin-economy-eb8515341c11), the Breez SDK lets developers add those borderless, trustless, permissionless, self-custodied, peer-to-peer payments to any app anywhere on the planet.

# **Mass**

The mass of Breez depends on two quantities. The first is the scope and utility of features in the Breez SDK. The more developers can do with the SDK, the more attractive it becomes as a way to add peer-to-peer payments to their apps. The second is the range and reach of the partners who’ve integrated the SDK. The more partners opt for our payment solution, the more we learn about how to adapt it to different contexts, different problems, and different user groups.

Both of these quantities have grown in the last year. We’ve improved the SDK through a number of new features, which have compelled many new partners to give us a try.

## **Rapidly Expanding Reach**

**Over 40 apps** have already implemented our SDK in production or beta since we launched it less than 18 months ago. Collectively, **~1.5 million users** now have access to self-custodial, peer-to-peer bitcoin payments through these apps. Our partners include household names in bitcoinland and crypto country as well as dynamic up-and-comers: [Relai](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-exchange-relai-integrates-lightning-network-for-its-100000-european-users), [Cake Wallet](https://medium.com/breez-technology/adding-lightning-to-crypto-is-a-piece-of-cake-with-the-breez-sdk-2476db0ed9dc), [Klever](https://medium.com/breez-technology/klever-wallet-bringing-lightning-to-crypto-with-the-breez-sdk-25b2be2a5e7b), [Yopaki](https://medium.com/breez-technology/yopaki-mexican-culture-meets-bitcoin-with-the-breez-sdk-75b76adc75be), [Elysium Lab](https://medium.com/breez-technology/the-breez-sdk-is-fit-for-the-gods-of-elysium-9ffee5b5ca0a), and many more. These apps processed **over $4.5 million** in gross transaction volume in 2024.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*t14NSnOs3-0zOnOL

## **Rapidly Expanding Functionality**

We’ve been working on our vehicle, the [Breez SDK](https://breez.technology/sdk/), to continuously improve its power and acceleration. The original, native implementation of the SDK gives users their own remote Lightning nodes that they can access anywhere on any device, and it lets developers integrate Lightning payments to their apps within just a few days and with a few API calls. Because of these strengths, it’s a great choice for many applications.

More recently, we launched the [nodeless implementation of the SDK](https://medium.com/breez-technology/to-help-bitcoin-flow-were-adding-some-liquid-to-the-breez-sdk-b56c14b0c9b0). In effect, it delivers the same seamless, virtually instantaneous bitcoin payments as the native implementation. However, by obviating channel management and a lot of the liquidity considerations that have long held Lightning back, the nodeless implementation accomplishes its task with less backend complexity and no setup fees for end-users. With the simplest UX Lightning can provide at the moment, it’s also a great choice for many other applications.

In the two quarters since we launched the nodeless implementation, adoption has been almost overwhelming. Over half the users the Breez SDK has reached have access to Lightning through our nodeless version.

## **Rapid Development**

Unlike some more esoteric kinds of creativity, software development like ours allows for relatively quantifiable measures of progress. A painter would never count their brushstrokes, but we count our commits exactly (actually, GitHub counts them automatically for us).

The nodeless implementation, which went live only months ago, has seen 572 commits over 10 releases since the launch. The native implementation has been active too, with 662 commits over 25 releases.

Hey devs! Listen to Neil Young: [rust never sleeps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Never_Sleeps).

# **Full Speed Ahead**

Momentum is great so long as you’re on the right track. It helps to check your bearings every so often to confirm the course. To that end, we’d like to share a few exciting projects on our roadmap.

Developers can look forward to Breez supporting new Lightning standards, including BOLT 12, to bring bitcoin payments directly to browsers through WebAssembly and improving the multi-device, multi-app support of the SDK with a real-time synchronization service.

Breez is also preparing to launch Misty Breez, a new reference app built on the nodeless implementation, showcasing how easy the Lightning UX can be for end-users using our SDK. In addition to these initiatives, we’re exploring new technologies to further enhance the SDK and set new standards for peer-to-peer payments.

# **$5M of Nitrous Ready to Go**

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*oWfFM2TUHflTCV4p

We’re making great progress, and if anything, we want to accelerate. So it’s time to push that [little red button](https://youtu.be/zcAg2A67bS4?t=63), the one that releases the N20 and makes everything in the rearview mirror distant and blurry.

In our case, the nitrous comes in the form of investors who inject the wisdom and capital that let us pick the right moves and execute them. They’ve recognized our product-market fit and our ability to continue driving adoption of Lightning in crypto, fintech, and mainstream apps.

Yes, Breez just raised $5 million. The list of our supporters includes some old friends, like [Entrée Capital](https://entreecap.com/) and [ego death capital](https://egodeath.capital/) (still the best name for a VC firm there ever was or will be), along with some new ones, like [Plan ₿ Fund](https://planb.network/en/) and [Timechain](https://timechain.concentric.vc/).

Jeff Booth, general partner at ego death capital, added: “Breez is breaking down barriers and providing the tools needed to build a world powered by permissionless peer-to-peer payments. Their work has been essential to manifest bitcoin’s importance as a medium of exchange, and we’re excited to continue to support them on this journey.”

We’ve been working really hard lately, and it’s gratifying to see smart, like-minded people agree that our momentum is so strong. We couldn’t do it alone, and we haven’t, so we’d like to thank everyone who has helped us build new things and the users who give our effort meaning. You are our growth and our strength.

# Breez SDK - Nodeless 0.6.2

***

## Features & Bug Fixes
* Real-time synchronization service of payments metadata and swaps information for a better multi-device, multi-app and app restore UX.
* Pay to BIP353 addresses.
* Receive to a BTC address without specifying an amount.
* Allow external input parser integration including out of the box support for Pick n' Pay QR codes.
* Added payment expiration information for pending payments.

***

Learn more 👉 https://github.com/breez/breez-sdk-liquid/releases/tag/0.6.2

New Release: Breez SDK - Nodeless 0.6.2

AMA with Joe Nakamoto: Bitcoin Journalist, MC & Amateur Shitcoin Troll

JoeNakamoto

From the documentaries and your time traveling, what would you say are the most common misconceptions from:

- bitcoiners on the general public's perception of bitcoin?

- the general public's perception of bitcoin?


🌊 #004 Feel the Breez 🎄

Rsync25

Thanks @Rsync25

https://m.primal.net/Mxun.jpg

Breez announce Klever Wallet as latest SDK partner ⚡️

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:906/format:webp/1*8KwC03aGXfNKPXGk8bNPQA.gif

Today, Breez announced Klever Wallet as their latest SDK partner, bringing 100,000 more people to Lightning payments.

Reposted from Breez's [Medium](https://medium.com/breez-technology).

***
### Klever Wallet: Bringing Lightning to Crypto with the Breez SDK

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*9cyhvM64Y_Pc4NNb

Every boxer starts as an amateur. If they work hard and have a good coach, they’ll get a chance at a professional fight one day. And while nobody gets a shot at the title in their first pro fight, they’ll never win the championship without completing that important step either.

The Breez SDK has been hitting the gym and sparring hard, taking on first the Lightning market, then building a name in the bitcoin community. Now, with our new partner [Klever Wallet](https://klever.io/) in our corner, we’re ready for crypto. Following this analogy, it’s time to go pro.

With this integration, Lightning is entering a big new ecosystem, competing on an equal playing field with all the crypto contenders. And we’re positive that its advantages as a trust-minimized, peer-to-peer way to use bitcoin as a currency will win the day … and the era.

Klever couldn’t have been more clever in choosing the Breez SDK to integrate Lightning payments, and we couldn’t be prouder that they did.

### It’s Worth More If You Really Earn It

Klever is already respected among the crypto pros, so figures describing Klever tend to include lots of zeroes. Klever Wallet has 100,000 monthly active users and offers users access to over 1,500 cryptocurrencies. For those prioritizing security, they offer their own [hardware wallet](https://kleversafe.io/).

Born in Brazil, the app opens the door to the crypto ecosystem for all, from newcomers to professional power users. With a mission to empower underbanked regions, Klever Wallet supports a vibrant global community and is popular in Nigeria, India, and the Philippines, as well as the United States, to name just a few of its prime markets.

Despite its size, the company still operates in perpetual “startup mode.” That means without hierarchy, without barriers, without pretension, and — in the words of CTO Bruno “Baiano” Campos — without bullshit.

Perhaps it’s because life has taught them better. CEO [Dio Ianakiara](https://support.klever.org/hc/en-us/articles/360057045652-From-the-Slums-of-S%C3%A3o-Paulo-to-Klever-CEO-A-Personal-Life-Story-of-Klever-by-Dio-Ianakiara) grew up in a favela doing odd jobs and living hand-to-mouth until he had saved up enough for his first computer. He learned to code from Baiano, who was then teaching software engineering whenever the waves were too small to surf. The two became friends, and Dio one day invited 20 colleagues over to his apartment to talk about what they wanted to do with their lives: keep subsisting in the corporate rat race or build something from the ground up as friends? (This is very similar to how Breez happened. Same basic idea, different apartment.)

They started consulting and participating in hackathons until Baiano read a book about bitcoin and got everyone hooked. It inspired them to build their first wallet, which, as first wallets often do, crashed in the first presentation. But whether it’s surfing, coding, or founding a startup, quitting gets you nowhere. So they kept at it, gradually improving their product and expanding their offering with the goal of making self-custodial crypto so easy that Mama Campos would prefer it over her banking app.

And they’re getting close.

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*Vn-meiw8yLIvMF3T

Download Klever Wallet [here](https://klever.io/en-us). Lightning coming soon ⚡️

### It’s Klever to Go Nodeless

The Klever team has been interested in Lightning for years but, until Breez, they hadn’t found a good way to implement it into their wallet. Like Breez, they believe only the *user* should control their money — and coding self-custodial Lightning from scratch and integrating it into their wallet was just too complex.

That changed when one of the Klever Wallet devs came into a meeting and told the rest of them about the Breez SDK. At first, the pitch sounded too good to be true. All the hard coding was done, so the Klever team would just have to integrate a few API calls into their wallet. The Breez SDK is self-custodial, with the mnemonic never leaving the user’s device, and any residual complexities of Lightning (for developers and users) were removed with [the nodeless implementation](https://medium.com/breez-technology/to-help-bitcoin-flow-were-adding-some-liquid-to-the-breez-sdk-b56c14b0c9b0?source=collection_home---5------0-----------------------).

Now, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But the Breez SDK is completely [open source](https://github.com/breez), so you can check. The Klever Wallet team did just that. And they found it was both true and as good as it sounded. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Klever Wallet users prioritize economy, so [the nodeless implementation](https://medium.com/breez-technology/to-help-bitcoin-flow-were-adding-some-liquid-to-the-breez-sdk-b56c14b0c9b0?source=collection_home---5------0-----------------------) was a perfect fit. Nodeless offers their users frictionless onboarding to bitcoin payments, removing the need for channel management and setup fees by leveraging the Liquid sidechain, and it works straight out of the box. As Bruno described it, integrating the SDK felt like Brazil’s favorite sport: football (or “soccer” for our American friends), “Breez was the winger who crossed the ball into the middle for Klever to score.” Joga Bonito.

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*nNhHgYS0nfQtzrye

Here’s Baiano hangin’ 10. You can see that Klever has always loved liquid.

### Frictionless As Ever

We’re always trying to minimize friction for our partners’ developers and their users, but we, like most engineers, tend to think of friction in technical terms, as a matter of how many steps or parameters need to be considered to make something work.

But Baiano gave us a great new perspective on friction. He’s said that working with the Breez team is just like working with people from inside the company because there are no barriers. Questions get quick and friendly answers. The Breez team consists of experts who, like all good experts, wear their expertise lightly. Baiano’s obligatory promo soundbyte emphasizes exactly this point: “Use it! Try it! The guys did a great job! Check for yourselves! Work with these guys because the human part is the best.”

The human part is the best. I couldn’t agree more, though it’s easy to forget. I’d like to think that none of us are here for the silicon or the copper. Bitcoin exists to give us choices and opportunities that we couldn’t access without it. Bitcoin, Breez, and Klever Wallet are all here to serve and support humans. Because the human part is the best.

We’re (humanly) excited to collaborate with Klever Wallet and bring Lightning to their community. Klever Swap is a feature that allows users to swap between 2,500+ cryptocurrency pairs, and it’s set to add Lightning by the end of 2024. As a result, it’ll reduce swap times up to 70% as well as fees for their users. Even better, Klever Wallet will fully integrate Lightning in early 2025, so everyone will be able to send and receive peer-to-peer Lightning payments in the app.

If you’re ready to add Lightning, [we’d love to collaborate with you too.](mailto:%20contact@breez.technology)

Let’s bring P2P money to the world.

Bitcoin's false dichotomy between SoV and MoE - Roy Sheinfeld | Lugano’s Plan ₿

For the article that this presentation was based on, you can head over to 
: https://stacker.news/items/726256