Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news from the past week. In this issue, President Nayib Bukele announces a zero debt budget, a batch of Salvadoran coffee gets purchased using bitcoin, and Lightspark eyes the region’s markets. Bukele States El Salvador Will Self-Finance 2025 Budget, Won’t Issue…
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Lightspark, a Bitcoin Lightning Network financial services company, has announced the release of its UMA Extend feature, which focuses on increasing the interaction between crypto and legacy rails in the U.S. With UMA Extend, businesses can opt in for a direction that can be linked to an account, allowing them to instantly receive LN payments…
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Bitso, a leading Latin American cryptocurrency platform, has announced its partnership with Lightspark to incorporate the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its services. This integration aims to enhance the speed and affordability of bitcoin transactions for Bitso’s users. Bitso Adds Lightning Support via Lightspark The integration of Lightspark Connect will allow Bitso‘s 8 million retail customers…
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Nubank, Latam’s most valuable bank, has partnered with Lightspark, a cryptocurrency-focused financial services company, to bring its customers access to Lightning Network transactions. With this partnership, Nubank expects to lower costs and get more flexibility for users to take advantage of its trading platform, according to Thomaz Fortes, Executive Director for Nubank Crypto. Nubank to…
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David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark, a company that offers lightning network (LN) related services, has stated that LN will become the “interoperability neutral settlement layer” for the world. Marcus declared that only Bitcoin is “neutral enough” to be implemented as the enabler between national payment systems, granting companies and institutions adopting it an edge for…
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David Marcus, the former president of Paypal and the current CEO of Lightspark, envisions bitcoin as the primary currency for artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. He describes bitcoin as “maximally neutral,” highlighting its advantages over conventional fiat currencies like the euro or the U.S. dollar. Bitcoin Poised to Become Default Currency for AI, Says…
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Coinbase, a leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has finally announced the implementation of the lightning network, a Bitcoin layer 2 scaling solution. Coinbase will now allow its users to take advantage of this scaling protocol to avoid paying high fees for Bitcoin transactions, enhancing the utility of crypto for customers using Coinbase’s services. Coinbase Adds Lightning…
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David Marcus, co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, an institutional Lightning Network (LN) payment solutions provider, referred to the state of custodial and non-custodial transactions on the network. While Marcus believes that custodial LN for institutions is ready for prime time, he acknowledged that non-custodial usage still implies compromising on some features. Lightspark’s David Marcus: Lightning…
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David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark and co-creator of Diem, Meta’s failed cryptocurrency project, explained his intentions of turning Bitcoin into a global payments network. Marcus explained that there was no universal protocol for sending value over the internet and that we were still in the “fax era” of global payments. Lightspark CEO David Marcus Wants…
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Marcus said there’s still no universal protocol when it comes to transferring money, unlike information which can be shared via email. While information today can be easily transferred over the internet via email or text, global payments have remained in the “fax era,” according to the former president of PayPal. In a Sept. 11 interview with…
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