Launching REDSHIFT: Trustless Cryptocurrency Payments — Reinvented

Today, we’re launching REDSHIFT, a powerful payments tool that makes it simple to send and accept Lightning payments using bitcoin or ether — no accounts needed. REDSHIFT provides a new way for people, businesses, and developers to use the Lightning Network via trustless transactions across tokens and blockchains. Anyone can pay a Lightning invoice, businesses can accept Lightning payments and cash out on-chain, node operators can efficiently manage their capital, and developers can integrate cross-network payment capabilities into their own applications.

Trustless, cross-chain transactions simplified

Before today, someone trying to pay a Lightning Network invoice with ether would need to deposit to an exchange, trade their ether for bitcoin, select and set up a Lightning wallet, wait for the withdrawal to the wallet, open a channel, and then make their transaction. This complex, multi-step process could take days and involve setting up numerous services, including infrastructure to handle ongoing payments, just to make a single payment.

With REDSHIFT, all of those steps are simplified. There’s nothing to set up, no channels to maintain, no accounts to create, and no time waiting for withdrawals. REDSHIFT is a giant leap forward in the user experience for cryptocurrency payments. Now, anyone can simply pay any Lightning invoice using tokens from supported blockchains directly from their existing wallet.

REDSHIFT facilitates swaps between Lightning and Bitcoin or other supported networks by using hash-timelocked contracts (HTLCs), a type of smart contract that powers the Lightning Network. Payment success and failure is baked into the contract so that the on-chain payment is completed only on a successful transaction.

Supporting the whole payments ecosystem

REDSHIFT is the easiest way to get started on the Lightning Network with altcoins. Using REDSHIFT, people can fund a Lightning wallet or make Lightning payments using the assets that they already have in the wallet that they already use. Currently, REDSHIFT supports payments to be sent in bitcoin and ether, with plans to support more tokens in the near future.

REDSHIFT offers solutions for Lightning and non-Lightning users alike. Existing Lightning users can use REDSHIFT to top up their balance or improve payment routing without opening a new channel. And soon businesses accepting Lightning payments will be able to cash out to supported on-chain assets simply by paying a Lightning invoice.

Those without Lightning infrastructure now have an easier way to make payments. Metamask users can make Lightning payments in seconds with the same experience as any other transaction. Users of other wallets can use REDSHIFT to pay via a wallet integration or the REDSHIFT Widget.

More functionality without more infrastructure

REDSHIFT allows wallets, businesses, and developers to create Lightning capabilities in their products and services without maintaining Lightning infrastructure. By using REDSHIFT to accept payments in many cryptocurrencies — without needing altcoin and treasury management tooling — wallets and businesses can easily, quickly, and affordably reach more customers.

Integrating REDSHIFT into your application or website is simple. Non-developers can embed the customizable REDSHIFT Widget with just a few lines of code. And developers can use the API and SDK to build more complex and custom integrations.

Lightning for all

‪REDSHIFT is the next product in our efforts to make the Lightning Network accessible to consumers, developers, and businesses of all kinds. We will be adding more blockchains, assets, capabilities, and integrations very soon. Get started with REDSHIFT today.‬

Open sourcing our work

We believe in contributing to the larger software development and blockchain development community when possible. With our work on REDSHIFT we’ve been able to create some tools that we hope others will find useful.

The REDSHIFT Widget is open sourced so that anyone can build upon or simply customize it to match their branding and user experience.

@radar/redshift-monorepo is a set of tools that makes it simple to execute trustless on-chain to off-chain cryptocurrency swaps. This allows people to easily access HTLC tooling on multiple chains with TypeScript and enables users to easily construct, verify, and execute HTLC payloads independent of REDSHIFT. The set of tools includes @radar/htlc, @radar/redshift-api-client, @radar/redshift-utils, @radar/redshift-types, and @radar/redshift.js with more to come.