Lightning Network trades go live on the Hodl Hodl exchange

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Hodl Hodl has announced that it is now ready to launch Lightning Network contracts.

In a Medium post detailing the move, the exchange stated: “From now on, everyone is able to buy Bitcoins and receive them directly into their Lightning wallet and sell Bitcoins directly from their wallet as well.”

The workflow for Lightning trades on Hodl Hodl follows a four-step process. Firstly, a contract is created between buyer and seller. After this, a seller deposits Bitcoins from his/her Lightning wallet. The buyer then pays the seller via the agreed upon payment method, with the final step being the seller releasing the Bitcoins directly to the buyer’s Lightning wallet.

Cheaper, faster, and simpler trades with Lightning

The popular community-focused exchange said: “The only difference [with Lightning trades] is that for the contract lifetime, we hold funds in our Lightning wallet, which protects both buyer and seller from scams.”

Hodl Hodl claims this method makes the deal “cheaper, faster, and simpler” than standard trades.

Lightning Network contracts will also not affect regular Bitcoin on-chain multisig contracts on Hodl Hodl, with the team confirming that those trades will still be fully non-custodial as the exchange “won’t have access to your funds”.

Lightning trades will initially be available on the Hodl Hodl mainnet, and while the exchange did say there is a possibility of minor bugs occurring, it claims the basic functionality is ready.

The firm concluded its blog post by claiming that it is already working to improve the current implementation and an update may be released in the next few weeks, but the fixes will be mostly related to the user interface.

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