The Lightning Bitcoin ATMs help to process transactions faster and solve the problem of batching funds for multiple transactions.
In a recent development, the Australian city of Coolangatta announced the launch of its first Bitcoin ATM integrated with Lightning Network capabilities. Lightning Network is a Layer-2 scalability solution for Bitcoin and seeks to provide faster transactions at even reduced costs. The new Bitcoin ATM in Coolangatta has been installed at The Strand shopping center and is available for public use. Bitcoin Lightning ATMs will work similarly to normal Bitcoin ATMs but would be saving significant time due to the instant transaction capabilities of the Layer-2 network.
Besides, it would also facilitate the purchasing of very small amounts of Bitcoins to its lowest denomination of Satoshis. 1 satoshi equals 0.00000001 BTC.
As of now, Bitcoin ATMs settle transactions directly on the blockchain network. However, this has a few restrictions of its own. For e.g. operators need to adapt to batching transactions whenever the miner fees increase very sharply during the times of Bitcoin bull runs.
It means that whenever a user purchases Bitcoin through an ATM, they don’t receive them immediately. Operators have a process in place for waiting for users of other ATM networks to use the machines before grouping and sending out transactions for several users in one single bulk transaction. The use of Lightning Network can help to resolve this issue to a great extent.
The Benefits of Lightning Bitcoin ATMs
Using the Lightning Network, the transactions can be processed immediately since the operator doesn’t need to batch funds. As soon as the user inserts the cash, he/she would receive the payments via the Lightning Network.
However, there’s still some debate about whether the use of Lightning Network would lead to a significant drop in the fees. But at any given point, they would still be lower than on-chain payments. Australia is currently competing with El Salvador and seeks to become the fourth-largest Bitcoin ATM hub in the world. As we step into 2023, Australia has a total of 213 Bitcoin ATMs.
Despite the crypto winter, the installations of crypto ATMs worldwide have been increasing. As per data by Coin ATM Radar, the total number of crypto ATMs worldwide has reached 38,602. Out of this, 6,071 ATMs were installed last year in 2022 alone.
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