MicroStrategy’s Saylor Integrates Bitcoin Lightning Address Into Corporate Email
The Lightning Address protocol allows users to send bitcoin over the Lightning Network to a wallet identifier resembling a conventional email address.
Apr 18, 2023 at 12:33 a.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/3W3F2HLHJREEXJAK3UTA466HLA.jpg)
Michael Saylor at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Michael Saylor, the outspoken bitcoin proponent and co-founder of business analytics software firm MicroStrategy (MSTR), has integrated Bitcoin’s Lightning Network into his corporate email address. This means anyone can use that email address – saylor@microstrategy.com – to send bitcoin (BTC) to the 58-year-old billionaire.
The integration uses The Lightning Address protocol, which allows developers to replace a standard Lightning invoice, or payment request, with an internet identifier such as an email address.
The Lightning Network is the Bitcoin blockchain’s layer 2 scaling system designed to make bitcoin payments cheaper and faster.
Saylor, who is reportedly worth around $1.2 billion and whose company has amassed approximately 140,000 BTC (about $4 billion at current prices), has been receiving small bitcoin donations from fans after tweeting about the integration.
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Frederick Munawa was a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covered blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.
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