Founder: Graham Krizek
Founded date: October 2020
Location of the headquarters: Wichita, Kansas
Number of employees: 17
Public or private? Private
In 2012, shortly after Graham Krizek discovered Bitcoin and subsequently began to contribute to Bitcoin Core and build his own applications in Bitcoin, he noticed a problem that was hindering Bitcoin builders.
“The problem I saw was that everyone was building everything from scratch, again and again,” Krizek told Bitcoin magazine. “There was no environment in the cloud in which Bitcoin’s infrastructure could turn and be able to start developing against it.”
However, at that time, Krizek did not feel obliged to act on this subject. He was still focused mainly on his career as a software engineer outside the Bitcoin space, working for several new companies and companies as large as Salesforce, while contributing to Bitcoin in his free time.
But something changed inside him when he learned about the light network.
He saw his potential and knew that it would have to be easier to use if he were widely adopted.
“When I found a ray, I told myself, ‘that’s fine, this is the next Bitcoin adoption phase, which will really take him to the next level,” Krizek said.
“Then, I saw the same pattern that happened with Bitcoin. Everyone was still starting from scratch while building, but the problems were more intense because lightning is much more complicated, ”he added.
“I was like ‘we need a cloud supplier where you can click on a button and have a light node running and maintained for you.’ It can be there so that we can develop applications and build the projects that we want to build much easier, much more fast “.
And so, Krizek got to work to create this product.
He shared the initial iteration with friends and acquaintances, many of whom began to use it so much that the project demanded more of his attention.
“Use grew to a point where I was like, ‘man, I need to close this because I can no longer keep it or I need to turn this into a business and really do it,” Krizek said.
It was decided by the latter, already the end of 2020, had founded Voltage.
How voltage works
The voltage abstracts the complexities of using lightning allowing users to implement a light node and turn a channel in just a few clicks.
While the voltage houses its node in its cloud, its public password, its peers, channels, balance and transactions remain private, since all traffic routed through the node is transferred through Tor.
While its node is executed in Voltage Cloud, which is compatible with Google Cloud and several other cloud service providers, the voltage also helps users to administer liquidity and offers other forms of customer service.
Essentially, the voltage abstracts the difficulties of interacting with the rays, while admitting its users in the process. And he does this in efforts to help institutions more easily adopt ray. Krizek also mentioned that they have new products and capacities to even help traditional financial companies with integration.
“The voltage mission is to make Bitcoin and the Achtning network accessible to all businesses on the planet,” Krizek said.
“Lightning is fantastic. It has many really amazing capabilities, but it can really be difficult to understand and especially incorporate it for commercial operations, especially for companies that are not in the bitcoin or cryptography space, “he added.
“We make it easy to use and plug.”
What types of companies are using lightning?
In the last year, notable companies such as Major Crypto Exchange Coinbase and the largest Fintech bank in Latin America, Cloud, have incorporated a ray in their operations.
Krizek sees this trend of encryption exchanges, neobanks and other financial services platforms incorporated into lightning that continues in the next year.
“Financial companies will definitely be the largest engines because if you can take the value of the Subsecond agreement with zero rates and apply it to a large payment processor that makes global payments, it is an incredible added value for your business,” Krizek said.
In addition, Krizek sees companies outside the Bitcoin, Crypto and Finance space also start using Lightning in 2025, in part, because companies such as Voltage are making it easier to do so.
“2025 will be a great year to start leaving our market niche,” Krizek said.
“The technology has still been a bit hard on the edges for a large company like Walmart to be, ‘hey, we are going to connect this now’. Even with voltage, we have not been perfect all the time with making the lightning very Easy to use, ”he added.
“However, I think we have made great steps in the last similar year, and we have much more dating.”
Another important obstacle for companies that seek to adopt lightning is the risk that comes with Bitcoin’s volatility management.
But that risk does not exist if companies send to Tether (USDT) about lightning instead of Bitcoin, which They can do it soon.
Tether (USDT) in Lightning
Krizek is optimistic about the USDT that reaches Lightning, since he believes that he will stimulate growth in the network.
“I think we are going to have many products and solutions around him,” Krizek said.
“It’s not even just that I am personally excited about that. Much of our customer base is very excited. They ask for it directly from us because Stablecoins is more or less the largest case of Crypto today, ”he added.
“When stablecoins are combined with subsection settlement rates and very low rates, it is a huge unlock. With Tron rates they become more expensive. People are looking for an alternative. “
(Tron has been the Leader Blockchain for Stablecoin Transactions due to how low rates have historically been in the network).
As for the USDT that runs on a ray potentially it presents a safety risk for Bitcoin (as I think it does), Krizek does not seem worried.
“It doesn’t worry me at all,” Krizek said.
“I think we have advanced from the war of block size in terms of acquisition A Tether potentially gaining large influence on Bitcoin.
“And it is even better to integrate something like Tether (USDT) in Lightning because it is a network in pairs, it is not a public consensus. So, you have much more ability to say ‘hey, if you do not want to participate in USDT transfers, simply not You do ‘”.
Advance in a Pro-Bitcoins regulatory environment
US Crypto Czar David Sacks is an inverter in voltage (Through your risk capital company, Craft Ventures). This would indicate that he has some understanding of the Lightning Network and the role of Bitcoin as a means of exchange.
So, does this mean that the United States is about to hug Bitcoin as such?
According to Krizek, not exactly.
“Everyone is shouting at this time by a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which treats Bitcoin as a value reserve,” Krizek explained.
“Over time, we will definitely listen more and more about Bitcoin as a means of payment. We just need to overcome this strategic reserve conversation and then say: ‘It’s fine, what else can we do with this?’ “He added.
However, the fact that the government is painting Bitcoin of any positive light is exciting for Krizek. Since 2012, when Bitcoin’s space entered for the first time, the government has ruled out Bitcoin or has been antagonistic towards him.
“When I started in Bitcoin, I was completely ignored, and the last four years were very bad for companies like us,” Krizek said.
“With this new administration, we have definitely seen the change in tone. We are still working on certain things, but we are definitely turning a corner and heading in the right direction, ”he added.
“I am really excited to see where you can go during the next year. I think it will be positive. “
