David Marcus forecasts end of the ‘fax era’ thanks to Bitcoin

The Lightning Network (LN) could solve the resource-intensive process of sending money across borders and move global payments out of the ‘fax era’, Marcus said in an interview with CNBC.

David Marcus on #bitcoin as base settlement layer for \”Trillions of dollars of transactions\”pic.twitter.com/L21fmiwxyZ

— Alex Stanczyk ∞/21m (@alexstanczyk) September 11, 2023

He lamented that, unlike information that can be shared over the Internet via email, there is still no universal protocol for money transfers.

“If you decided to send funds to someone who is not a US citizen […], you would get nowhere”, he noted.

Marcus explained that sending to non-residents would require obtaining their bank account number and going to a local bank to pay a $50 fee. If this desire arises on a Friday evening, you would have to wait until Monday, he added.

Marcus’s Lightspark is trying to address this with LN. Marcus is convinced the solution will be well suited for cross-border transfers, whereas it may be used less frequently for everyday purchases.

“Bitcoin is not the currency people will use to buy things. Instead, digital gold will be used to send US dollars to someone who will ultimately receive them in Japanese yen or euros at the other end of the world”, Marcus explained.

Since the start of 2023, several prominent industry players have announced initiatives to use the protocol.

David Marcus’s Lightspark launched a platform to connect businesses to LN. The cryptocurrency private bank Xapo integrated the network, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced a similar move from the largest US exchange.

TBD, Jack Dorsey\’s Bitcoin-focused subsidiary Block announced the launch of a division dedicated to LN ecosystem development named с=.

MicroStrategy introduced a service to reward customers or employees based on the protocol.

Global crypto exchange Binance launched new LN nodes as part of preparations for full network integration.

In July, Lightning Labsintroduced LangChainBitcoin tools, which will allow AI developers to integrate Bitcoin payments into their solutions.