CNBC Sends Bitcoin Over Lightning Network to Ukrainian in Poland Who Cashed Out in 3 Minutes

In juts 3 minutes Bitcoin were sent and cashed out.

Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Ukrainians have been stranded, especially in the area of finances. Alena Vorobiova is a Ukrainian who fled to Poland in the heat of the invasion. CNBC tried to use the Bitcoin Lightning Network to send BTC to her as an option against traditional funds transfers.

With the help of bitcoin developer Gleb Naumenko, Vorobiova could download and install a Bitcoin Lightning wallet on her phone, which she used to receive the Bitcoin. Peter McDormack, founder and host of the ‘What Bitcoin Did’ podcast who demonstrated to CNBC how to use Lightning Network months ago, also transferred 100,000 sats to them. From this stash, CNBC decided to send 50,000 sats to Vorobiova, which she withdrew within 3 minutes.

Low-cost transaction

Lightning Network is a Layer 2 solution for the Bitcoin network created to facilitate faster Bitcoin transactions at lower fees. This became necessary as Bitcoin became congested after more people started using it with limited block size.

CNBC testifies how fast it is to use Lightning Network for BTC transactions. The transaction was also processed at a fraction of a penny. This is remarkable considering that traditional funds transfer methods cost at least 10% from the U.S to Poland. 

Another remarkable thing about the transaction is that there was no intermediary involved; the BTC was directly transferred to the recipient’s wallet in a peer-to-peer fashion.

“The Lightning Network consists of nodes connected by payment channels, which are used to forward payments across the network without the need to trust intermediaries,” a developer with Jack Dorsey’s team known as Spiral (formerly Square Crypto), Czyz said.

Lightning network wider adoption

The idea of the Bitcoin Lightning Network was initially taken with a pinch of salt. However, Situations have arisen that necessitated the use of technology to transfer funds from one place to another. The Ukraine war is one of the recent happenings that have demonstrated the need for the Lightning network in crowdfunding for people like Vorobiova.

The number of Bitcoin Lightning nodes has increased by 5% in the last 30 days to 31,965, indicating that more users are coming on board. This is apart from nodes that only operate private channels. The number is expected to grow as people continue to look for cheaper ways to transfer funds across borders.