opennode, the bitcoin payment processor, has just announced the closing of a $20 million funding round led by twitter, uk-based kingsway, venture capitalist tim draper and avon ventures. The company now valued at $220 million is focused on building a bitcoin payments infrastructure and lightning network.
the adoption of bitcoin payments
opennode was funded in 2018 and is focused on creating the infrastructure to support bitcoin as “the new foundation layer for global payments” while building on the lightning network to enable low-cost transactions.
Reading: Bitcoin opennode ventureswojnozdnet 20m kingsway twitter
“In the growing lightning network ecosystem, hundreds of thousands of transactions per second can be processed at almost no cost. payments benefit from instant and final settlement, zero fraud, zero chargebacks, and the security of the bitcoin base chain.”
opennode focuses only on bitcoin, seeing other cryptocurrencies as noise to ignore: “the multitude of digital projects and tokens, while novel, is largely a distraction from the important work of transforming the world’s settlement base layer “.
The funding round aims to expand opennode’s services and grow its team, while also focusing on increasing the use of bitcoin as a form of payment. the company stated that in a few months they will announce new product features such as a payment wallet and account-linked debit card, partnerships and customers “that will drive significant adoption of bitcoin payments.”
josh hold, head of strategy at opennode, stated in a press release that the demand for bitcoin payment solutions is showing exponential growth and that the company is investing in creating the right infrastructure for the largest companies in the world to world adopt bitcoin as a method. payment.
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“This series of funds is the next step in helping the company fulfill our mission of making bitcoin payments simple and accessible to everyone, everywhere”
Although opennode’s current transaction volume hasn’t been specified, Susten told the block that the team expects to hit the 25,000+ btc mark soon, which translates to around $1 billion based on the current value of the digital currency.
Bitcoin supporter and investor Tim Draper commented that OpenNode is beneficial for retailers because it allows them “to accept bitcoin without having to pay the banks or the credit card companies the 2% to 4%,” doing it with “only a fraction of the energy cost required for an on-chain bitcoin transaction.”
Likewise, kingsway capital founder and principal investor manuel stotz believes that the lightning network, which complements bitcoin, “is going to be the most important technology for financial inclusion” because it promises to propel the digital currency to to become “a global censorship”. resilient and permissionless payment network.”
related reading | Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says bitcoin will be a big part of the social media giant’s future
twitter jump
twitter is a new addition to the payment company limits table. the social media company has long been interested in playing a relevant role in the crypto ecosystem. ester crawford, group product manager, said in the press release:
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“Digital currencies encourage more people around the world to participate in the economy, and with less friction. opennode is creating easier paths for anyone, anywhere to access the digital economy through its seamless integration of bitcoin payments.”
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is a huge supporter of Bitcoin and while he remained in the role, Dorsey claimed that Bitcoin would become a “big part” of the platform by helping it expand. At the moment, he believed it was “very important to twitter and twitter shareholders that we continue to look at the [crypto] space and aggressively invest in it.”
The company has moved to join cryptocurrencies by integrating nfts, growing its crypto team, and moving towards web3. Twitter CFO Ned Segal also talked about implementing bitcoin as a tool to “facilitate trading” on the platform.
related reading | how bitcoin will help twitter improve trading on its platform, says chief financial officer
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