The Bitcoin Lightning torch reaches Iran despite censorship concerns

The Bitcoin Lightning torch has been passed on to Iranian Coinex executive Ziya Sadr following initial concerns that he could not receive the torch on a political basis.

The Lightning torch experiment was started by crypto space explorer hodlonaut. Bitcoin users have since been playing a running game wherein each participant adds a little Bitcoin to a Lightning Network payment chain then passes it on to someone on Twitter that they trust. This is being referred to as passing around a “Lightning torch”.

The initiative was started in order to spread awareness of the Layer 2 Lightning Network technology, widely seen as the future of Bitcoin as it improves scalability and allows for instantly verifiable Bitcoin payments.

The torch has currently been passed to 237 participants.

Peach Inc. senior software engineer Vijay Boyapati sent out a tweet in late February stating that US laws made it difficult for him as a citizen to send the torch to Sadr.

Boyapati noted: “Very sad that two peaceful people cannot transact with each other across the world because of the state.”

The issue has now been circumvented by Bitgeiniog, who has managed to send the torch to Sadr.

Upon receiving the torch, Sadr tweeted: “The #LNTrustChain torch is LIT in Tehran! Thanks to Welshman @bitgeiniog who helped send it here from @BitcoinMagazine. Let’s keep the censorship resistance trend going.”

Sadr followed up with a tweet stating: “We have always been censored from both sides, sanctioned globally, and censored locally by our own gov. #Bitcoin will lead the way in censorship resistance and I’ll pass the torch to other people who help the world resist censorship!”

Afterwards, Sadr passed the torch on to fellow Iranian @samabbassi. The torch has yet to be passed on since @samabbassi received it.

The Lightning torch reaching Iran has caused a buzz on social media. The creator of the Lightning torch, hodlonaut, posted a tweet praising the occasion.

Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner at Morgan Creek, posted a tweet highlighting how Bitcoin is “uncensorable money”.

Interested in reading more about the Lightning torch? Discover how Justin Sun sent the torch to Erik Vorhees after receiving no response from Elon Musk and Kobe Bryant.