Athena Bitcoin Plans to Integrate Crypto ATMs into Lightning Network in El Salvador

Athens Bitcoin, a company operating a state-owned crypto ATM network in El Salvador (photo: twitter @AthenaBitcoin)

JAKARTA - Athena Bitcoin, the company that operates the state-owned crypto ATM network in El Salvador, plans to integrate the Lightning Network into 100 of these machines in the coming months.

According to a press release from November 7, Athena Bitcoin Global and Genesis Coin have enabled the use of Lightning Network technology across their technology infrastructure. Now they will start implementing it, first in El Salvador, and then throughout Latin America.

The Lightning Network is a second-layer payment protocol that enables faster withdrawals and minimizes transaction fees. This also avoids recording transaction data in main network accounting. According to Coin ATM Radar, only 3.7% of all crypto ATMs in the world support this technology.

Athena intends to switch to Lightning support on the 100 state-owned Chivo ATMs it operates in El Salvador by December 2023. Available kiosks, including Athena-branded ones, will follow in the first quarter of 2024. There are currently 215 crypto teller machines in El Salvador.

El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, who made Bitcoin the legal currency in 2021, recently announced his candidacy for president in the 2024 elections. "Five more years, five more years, and not one step back," Bukele said in a speech in front of thousands of El Salvadorans.

In April 2023, Bukele took the bold step of eliminating all taxes on technological innovation, which could attract more entrepreneurs and foreign capital to invest in the country.

Some experts, such as Gabor Gurbacs, a strategic advisor at investment management firm VanEck, believe that El Salvador could follow in Singapore's footsteps and become a financial center in South America.