Flexa adds support for fraud-proof Lightning Network payments
The leading pure-digital payments network expands Pay with Flexa functionality and introduces Transformers to enable zero-fraud Lightning payments for all merchants.
NEW YORK — Flexa, the leading provider of the fastest and most fraud-proof payments network in the world, today announced that it will be enabling Flexa merchants to seamlessly receive payments via the Lightning Network in stores, in mobile apps, and online. Building upon Flexa’s recently introduced “Pay with Flexa” platform, this new integration represents the first time that merchants who would like to receive bitcoin via Lightning can do so in a fully compliant and fraud-proof way.
As the most popular layer 2 scaling solution for Bitcoin, the Lightning Network enables payments to be processed faster and more privately than they would natively on the Bitcoin blockchain, specifically using an off-chain “payment channel” protocol. Lightning was introduced in 2015 and has seen increased usage among bitcoin holders in recent years. In adding support for Lightning payments, Flexa is enabling merchants to receive payments from more bitcoin holders than ever before, including users of popular and soon-to-be-released Lightning-enabled wallet apps such as BlueWallet, Breez, Eclair, Strike, and Chivo.
“Flexa is committed to enabling pure-digital payments for as many merchants and as many of their customers as possible,” said Tyler Spalding, CEO of Flexa. “The Lightning Network and Flexa share the same goals of making digital asset payments more user-friendly, more private, efficient, and accessible for people all over the world. We’re delighted to begin accepting Lightning payments network-wide, and we look forward to enabling merchants to receive payments through additional Layer 2 scaling solutions and native blockchains in the near future.”
Today, Flexa is also introducing Transformers, a means for layer 2 scaling solutions such as the Lightning Network to connect to Flexa Capacity, the collateralization platform that Flexa uses to guarantee payments against fraud or theft. In order to ensure that all Lightning payments to merchants are secured from the time they are authorized until their full on-chain confirmation, Flexa locks a commensurate amount of Amp as collateral in Flexa Capacity smart contracts. In return, the individual stakers who provide Amp collateral earn network rewards based on the payment volume processed through Flexa’s Lightning nodes. In this way, merchants are assured that payments processed through Flexa’s Lightning integration will never be exposed to risk of loss.
Flexa-powered Lightning payments are live today for select partners and merchants in El Salvador, and will be rolling out to all Flexa merchants in the coming weeks. Merchants who would like to begin accepting Flexa-powered digital currency payments, including payments made via the Lightning Network, can explore Flexa’s integration offerings for more details.
Since its launch just two years ago, the Flexa network has experienced tremendous growth as consumers increasingly demand digital currencies as a means of payment. To accommodate this expansion, Flexa plans to hire for dozens of new roles across design, product, engineering, and operations. These hiring plans come on the heels of new partnerships and product developments.
In May, Flexa announced the expansion of its digital currency acceptance offering to include a suite of eCommerce plug-ins that enable merchants — for the very first time — to instantly accept digital currencies via their online retail channels, streamlining spending for the dozens of digital currencies currently supported on the network. In the same month, Flexa also became the first payments network to make its activities completely carbon neutral.
About Flexa
Flexa is the global leader in pure-digital payments, providing merchants and developers with simple integrations for digital currency acceptance that are fast, affordable, and completely fraud-proof. Founded in 2018, Flexa’s mission is to make payments more efficient and accessible for people all over the world.
