According to Clay Graham, founder of Rapaygo and Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) enthusiast, there is “massive evidence” that “America is adopting Bitcoin.”
At the Bitcoin Lightning festival held in Portland, USA over the weekend, Bitcoin LN earned over $200 (four million satoshis) in just three hours.
Portland’s Bitcoin Party, billed as the “Puddle City on Lightning Rails,” was a place where “vendors, food carts, artists accept bitcoin.” Graham told Cointelegraph that there was also a “food basket” that acted as a “place of business attraction for bitcoin fans who want to experience the bitcoin beach.”
Fiat money was banned, of course, and popular bitcoiner Dennis Porter was the host at the festival. In this tweet, he showed how easy it is to pay for goods using LN:
I paid ZERO fees to instantly accept #Bitcoin on my shirts. Can Visa do it?pic.twitter.com/34haSgIB6G — Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) March 28, 2022
Graham told Cointelegraph that the event would be considered a success if “people can spend bitcoin freely, as they do.” In total there were:
“50 people spend over 4 million sats in 3 hours, 3 food carts and 7 vendors selling whatever they want and even support use cases like “tipping the DJ”.
Graham concluded that LN was easy to pay at the party: it was “easier than cash, everything is cheaper than cards, and it was fun on a sunny day.”
An almost instant Layer 2 payment network built on top of the underlying Bitcoin blockchain, LN is perfect for the party. Pubinno, the company behind Lightning’s pint pouring tool, was built with festivals in mind, while LNBits builds open source payment tools like split payment tools and offline solutions to make payments even smoother.
Thiago Vasconcelos, co-founder of Aceita Bitcoin and contributor to LNBits FOSS, told Cointelegraph:
“With LN, all you need is an internet connection! No card reading equipment, no need for cash, no need to change currencies [даже]if the venue is international and with a large number of foreigners.
Built on LN, LNBits’ free and open source solutions compete closely with Visa and Mastercard. Vasconcelos adds that “network fees are close to zero or even zero and are ultimately paid by the buyer, not the seller!” In addition, “Using LN reduces the costs and risks associated with using a Visa or Mastercard.”
After all, some bitcoiners even want the scammers to know about LN and about Graham:
“LN works so fast, and transactions can go through as fast as with cards, so both buyer and seller don’t get that ‘where did my money’ feeling when they’re just trying to have some fun on a sunny day.”
Related: Shitcoins Are ‘Junk’: Bitcoin-Only Brokers on Freedom and Finance
In addition, it is a payment network that supports “artists, do-it-yourselfers and small businesses.” And there’s more local connection to money—and more sovereignty—because for the Portland Bitcoin Party, “nodes that route payments for LN basically become liquid in Portland.”
On the heels of Portland’s success, Graham added that “Kansas City has already turned to this party template for help” using his company’s solutions.
“Remember that a year later El Salvador declared Bitcoin Beach legal tender. Now we can have a bitcoin beach in every city.”
