Azteco Now Offering Lightning Network Vouchers

Azteco now allows users to redeem bitcoin vouchers over the Lightning Network for improved efficiency and reduced fees.

Bitcoin voucher platform Azteco has announced the launch of Lightning Network vouchers, allowing users to redeem their Azteco vouchers over the second layer network for improved efficiency and reduced fees.

“You can now redeem your Azteco Voucher over Lightning,” wrote Azteco lead Beautyon in an announcement post. “Depending on what the network conditions are, if you choose to have your bitcoin on chain, you will be charged a network fee, that can be anything from under a dollar to $9 or more. Or… You can have your $100 in bitcoin for a fee of zero. And the recipient doesn’t have to wait in order to send or spend what they’ve received. They can send it instantly to any other person who has a Lightning-powered wallet.”

Azteco allows users to buy top-up vouchers at retail locations as anonymously as they choose, then provide a voucher number and Bitcoin address on its website to receive the corresponding amount of BTC. As a Layer 2 network built on top of Bitcoin, the Lightning Network allows users to transaction bitcoin back and forth in private channels, and only settle the transactions and incur on-chain fees when these channels are finally closed.

Beautyon added that there are 16 wallets where users can redeem Azteco Lightning vouchers, including Phoenix by Acinq, BlueWallet, Breez and Zebedee.

“Bitcoin over Lightning means that anyone with a cheap Android phone can redeem an Azteco Lightning voucher for $1 without fees,” Beautyon wrote. “It means that billions of people can use Bitcoin in a private, instant way, all over the globe, with very small amounts of money. It means that anyone anywhere can store any amount of bitcoin on their phones, and transmit any amount of bitcoin to anyone, instantly.”