After a long time, I’m once again starting to believe that bitcoin could be used for everyday payments in the future, not just as a store of value. And that’s thanks to a interesting project called Spark (@spark). Sure, we’ve had the Lightning Network for payments for many years now—and while I’m a big fan of that layer, let’s be honest: it works really well only in a custodial setup. If a user wants to hold their own keys and be fully self-sovereign, the user experience is not great—mainly due to liquidity management in channels, inability to receive payments while offline, capital inefficiency, and overall complexity. Many of these issues are tackled by Spark from @lightspark. It’s a new second-layer protocol on top of bitcoin, built on an enhanced concept of statechains, and it’s primarily focused on payments. What can you expect? Extremely fast and cheap bitcoin transactions with no need for payment channels or complicated liquidity management. And all that while retaining private key ownership—completely self-custodial. Spark is also compatible with the Lightning Network, meaning it can be used to pay any LN invoice. That means—these layers are not in competition, but rather can work together. And there’s more: Spark supports stablecoins. For the first time, I believe this protocol could actually bring stablecoin transactions back to bitcoin. Like it or not, stablecoins are set to boom over the coming years as a medium of exchange, and enabling them to move over the most neutral and decentralized network is great news for their further adoption. So what’s the catch? Did Spark prioritize user-friendliness over security? Personally, I’d say it found the right balance given the current technological possibilities and its specific focus. The only moment that requires some degree of trust is during the act of sending a transaction. However, as long as at least one operator (or a defined threshold) behaves honestly, your funds become fully secure and you no longer need to trust anyone. Moreover, this layer is not meant for HODLing large amounts of funds, but primarily for payments. I personally recommend keeping an eye on Spark, as I believe it could become one of the key players in digital payments within the next few months.