Lightning Labs Releases Software to Allow Bitcoin Developers to Mint and Transfer Assets on the Blockchain

Lightning Network infrastructure firm Lightning Labs has released a test version of the Taro daemon, a new piece of software that will allow Bitcoin developers to create, send and receive assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Taro is a Taproot-powered protocol that was introduced in April and that allows bitcoiners to issue assets such as stablecoins on the Bitcoin blockchain. Those assets can then be transferred over the Lightning Network for instant, high-volume and low-fee transactions.

According to Lightning Labs, Bitcoin, Lightning and now, Taro, will make it possible to create peer-to-peer Bitcoin and Lightning-native stablecoins that settle instantly, with low transaction fees and no financial intermediaries.

“With Taro and the incredible developer community, we can build a world where users have [U.S. dollar]-denominated balances and BTC-denominated balances (or other assets) in the same wallet, trivially sending value across the Lightning Network just as they do today,” Lightning Labs wrote in its announcement on Wednesday.

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Frederick Munawa

Frederick Munawa is a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covers blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.

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