By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
With the new software, developers can now mint, send, or receive assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Lightning Labs, the infrastructure arm of Lightning Network has launched a new software called the Taro daemon. However, the open-source software is still in its testing phase, meaning that only the test version has been released.
Taro Daemon to Be Used by Bitcoin Developers
With this new software, developers may now mint, send, or receive assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. But considering that this is only a test release, developers will only use Taro daemon to issue tokens on testnet for the time being.
The testnet, as it were, is an alternative to the Bitcoin blockchain. And it provides an experimental ground where developers may test out applications with testnet coins instead of using actual BTC. During this time, projects get to discover bugs and potential risks and carry out extensive tests to fix them. Only after this, do the projects usually go live on the Bitcoin blockchain (mainnet).
According to a statement from Lightning Labs, the ultimate plan is to integrate Taro with the Lightning Network. By then, when developers can issue assets on the mainnet, they will be able to transfer them over the Lightning Network, albeit in high volumes and at low transaction costs.
But in the meantime, there is an ongoing development geared toward making the integration a success. That involves merging Taro’s Taproot channels into the company’s Lighting implementation (LND) as a first step.
Then there are further plans to also add a “universe functionality” to Taro daemon. According to Lightning Labs, this functionality will allow users and asset issuers to provide proof of ownership and history of an asset among other things. The firm confirms that work is currently ongoing in this regard and that universes will soon be added to Taro.
With Taro, Lightning Labs is aiming to create a situation where users can hold both crypto balances and Fiat balances in a single wallet. The firm believes that this will greatly improve the Lightning Network in general.