Strike, a digital payment company, has expanded its international money transfer service on the Bitcoin Lightning network to the Philippines to reach $12 billion in remittance sales in the host country. The Philippines is one of the largest remittance markets in the world.

The remittance service, called Send Global, will be offered in the Philippines on Tuesday, according to a press release. It runs on Lightning Network (Lightning Network), a "layer 2" extension solution that enables cheaper and faster bitcoin buying and selling. According to press releases, assets traded in foreign exchange from China under this service can also be received in local currency in the bank and mobile currency accounts of the recipient.

Strike actively collaborated with El Salvador to apply bitcoin to become legal tender in such a Central American country, which caused a strong reaction. Today, it aims to transform the traditional multibillion-dollar remittance sector by taking advantage of Lightning's reduced costs and near-real-time payments, which the company says is plagued by high service charges and slow waiting times.

Jason Malus, founder and CEO of Strike, told the Wall Street Journal: if you think about cross-border e-commerce, you don't think it's very fast, very cheap and very good. "We are secretly using Bitcoin's lightning network to achieve something that has never been possible before."

Lightning network improvement

The lightning analysis website, 1ML, shows an increasingly dynamic Internet, with more than 16000 connection points, more than 76000 secure channels (connections between lightning connection points), and a network capacity close to 5300 BTC (about $122 million at launch).

"even years ago, Lightning hadn't been discovered yet," Mallers explained. "the strength of an Internet lies in its participants. The improvement of the Internet has added economies of scale and network effects that we have not seen before.

According to the press release, the Strike app converts US dollars into bitcoin and sends Lightning payments to third-party partners in the recipient's country. (Strike has collaborated with Pouch.ph, a Bitcoin tripartite payment platform in the Philippines.) The partner converts Bitcoin into local legal tender and shares the money with the recipient's bank and mobile bank account.

Mallers shows that all of this happens out of sight of customers, protecting them from the diversity of Bitcoin collection and avoiding any hidden tax hazards that may arise from the sale and handling of Bitcoin in the market.

"it involves all kinds of adverse tax effects-if I think I'm going to remit money to the Philippines from here, I have to tell the IRS. This is ridiculous. "said Mailer. "people take advantage of the lightning under the hood of the engine. But our customers have no idea that people are using it. We just send US dollars and collect pesos.

Last month, Send Global was still released in Algeria, Australia and Cameroon.

"everyone has partners all over the world," Mallers said, "because Lightning is an open payment Internet."

Update: Tuesday, January 31, 2022, UTC 15:34:Enhanced lightning network to improve data charts.