BitPay is a popular crypto payments service and it has announced that Bitcoin direct on-chain payments are still dominating its platform. Moreover, BitPay also mentioned that it won’t adopt popular second layer solutions such as Liquid networks or the Lightning Network (LN).
This news was deemed as disappointing by the most vocal LN supporters, especially considering that standard or direct Bitcoin payments are often judged as too slow or too expensive. It’s not a secret anymore that Bitcoin transaction fees are simply too high for mainstream usage.
However, BitPay believes that the Lightning Network is not practical enough to be implemented in its platform. Based on March’s volume, more than 95% of BitPay trading volumes come from Bitcoin on-chain transactions.
BitPay believes that both the Lightning Network and Liquid sidechain networks don’t really solve the problem with Bitcoin’s scalability because they have their own downsides. That being said, BitPay does not close its doors to future scalability alternatives that might become available in the next few years.
Inside the same report, BitPay also stated that stablecoin usage inside its platform has been increasing significantly. As of today, BitPay users are already allowed to use USDC, GUSD, and PAX inside the platform. Stablecoins usage inside BitPay is projected to grow in the upcoming months as they become much more popular recently.
Source: Cointelegraph
