Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, responded to a Twitter post saying that they will accept Bitcoin (BTC) as form of payment for tickets. This has a huge significance in terms of adoption for the blockchain revolution, since a lot of non-believers say that Bitcoin (BTC) has no real use-cases.
This most recent announcement shows us how we can actually see adoption taking place right now. You can check out Mark Cuban’s tweet below, and as many of you may know he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States and after his featured appearance at Shark Tank he is currently one of the biggest influencers of public opinion in terms of investment opportunities.
Image 1 – Mark Cuban’s Tweet – Source: https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/953104057727619074
After Steam announced they would stop accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a form of payment and started accepting Litecoin (LTC), everyone started to think that Bitcoin is not a viable form of payment due to its high fees. These concerns were indeed on point but we must not forget what Bitcoin has in store, the LN (Lighting Network).
How to battle fees with Lightning Network
A lot of the concerns with high fees in the Bitcoin (BTC) network were addressed through the creation of the Lightning Network. What this network does is open a communication channel that will handle the transactions between user A and user B where a limit is set through a smart contract where for example:
- User A and user B want to open a transaction channel, where user A wants to send Bitcoin (BTC) to user B.
- A transaction cap is set, let’s say 1 BTC that shall be time limited (for example 10 days) and each user receives a private key that gives the other user the ability to redeem his tokens before the 10 days.
- In order to open a channel both users must digitally sign the contract which means that only a transaction with both signatures can be launched in Bitcoin’s network without the wait period of 10 days.
- A new transaction must have a time limitation which must be shorter than the 10 days that was previously set.
- Everytime user A sends funds (0.1 BTC for example) to user B, he creates a transaction that is signed only by user A, which means that it is still not able to be launched to the network without the wait period.
- When the transaction is made a new private key is made for each user and the previous key is traded amongst them.
- If user A tries to launch the last state of the Lightning Network without the signature of the user B then he will have to wait for the 10 days or less to redeem his tokens.
- If this happens, user B will have access to user’s A previous private key which will grant him access to all the tokens in the channel.
What this means is that in a channel where any Bitcoin (BTC) amount is set you can make thousands of transactions or more and since it is deployed only at the closing of the channel which will drastically decrease transaction fees, dividing it by the amount of times that a transaction is made.
You can learn more about Lightning Network through the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tHD9Gj9UNg
Market Analysis
Bitcoin (BTC) continues its relentless growth and 2017 was a proof of that. Even though the market is retracting like predicted in the past days following the holiday hype, this is only a sign that mass adoption is in the horizon, maybe not of Bitcoin (BTC) but with the Lightning Network we come one step closer.
We almost reached the 800-million-dollar market cap this month and the trillion-dollar mark is not far ahead, Bitcoin has never gone below 30% in market quota.
If we look at the previous lows in the years before one thing becomes more obvious, we are at the turning point for 2018. Check below:
Image 2 – Bitcoin Charts from Coin Market Cap – Source: King Coins
Cover Image: Source – forbes.com