Bitcoin Lightning Network To Power Fiat Transfers Between Europe & Africa

By Kevin • December 16, 2022 2:30 pm • Comments

It looks like the Bitcoin Lightning Network is getting a huge upgrade that will allow it to now support fiat transfers between the two continents of Europe and Africa.

This is a sign of major adoption that is now coming to fruition as the blockchain network is now becoming accessible to more people than ever.

This is possible due to a new partnership between CoinCorner and Bitnob which focuses on allowing cross-border transactions to happen even when you are dealing with multiple different types of currencies.

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The start is just for transactions between Europe and Africa, but speculators believe that the success of this partnership will lead to more global adoption in other continents in the future.

CoinTelegraph shares the details:

Fund transfer between Europe and Africa typically requires a third-party facilitator like Western Union, which relies on centralized entities. These transactions often require multiple parties’ approval, increasing processing times and fees.

The World Bank estimates that remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa were over $40 billion yearly as of 2020, with Nigeria receiving almost half of the sum.

Now, users can transfer funds via the Bitcoin Lightning Network from the United Kingdom and Europe to select African countries. The application, Send Globally, allows British pounds or euros to be converted to Nigeria nairas, Kenyan shillings and Ghanaian cedis.

The Lightning Network first converts funds to Bitcoin
BTC, then to the local currency of the receiving country, and deposits the funds straight into the receiver’s bank account or mobile money wallet.

Bitcoin also happens to fit the use case of this partnership given that Bitcoin is decentralized and is effectively borderless.

Originally, the cost of a BTC transaction is quite high, but some are hoping that the recent Lightning Network upgrade will allow for transactions to be much quicker and cheaper.

A lot of countries are also interested now in these cross-border remittance payments, especially a lot of third world countries that do not have access to traditional financial systems.

With these crypto-powered networks, most of the countries in Africa will be able to access them which effectively makes these financial networks have a lower barrier of entry.

This could potentially solve one of the major problems that has plagued the financial industry for so long.

Continued adoption of this network is expected assuming that this partnership is a success.

BitcoinMagazine reports:

“The borderless nature of Bitcoin has always made it a great tool for sending money around the world, but now with the Lightning Network, sending Bitcoin is instant and very low cost,” said Danny Scott, CoinCorner CEO, in a statement.

“By partnering with Bitnob to provide a seamless cross-border experience using Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, we hope to remove some of the friction and cost that customers experience when using traditional FX and money remittance companies.”

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