Coinbase Commerce is likely to integrate Solana and the Lightning Network. The same has been teased through its product lead, Lauren Dowling. Coinbase Commerce has, for now, removed support for UTXO and Bitcoin. The idea behind making such changes is to address the struggles of customers with operational challenges.
That includes the inability or difficulty to manage crypto volatility risk, limited asset support, and the manual burden of resolving incorrect payments. Also, Coinbase Commerce is attempting to address the ongoing evolution in the crypto sphere, where the only way forward is to strategize the roadmap for the future.
Reasons stated for removing support for Bitcoin are the unavailability of smart contract enablement and the absence of native stablecoin. That has not undermined transactions with Polygon, Base, and Ethereum. Lauren has highlighted that the plan to integrate Solana and Lightning Network is in the works and is part of a long-term move. No tentative timeline has been stated, but Dowling has expressed confidence in the integration, stating that it would bring new ways to enhance customers’ experience.
As difficult as removing Bitcoin support sounds, Lauren said that it has rather brought them closer to executing their mission. Most of it is already in the works, like glowing feedback from merchants, reduced manual efforts, and higher conversion rates.
The community is not precisely impressed with the announcement. Most of them linked this to PayPal, saying that it is going to become PayPal with extra steps. Some of them have defended the move, establishing that it is in line with long-term L2 payments and value transfer on-chain.
Coinbase Commerce is a part of the Coinbase ecosystem, pretty much like other programs. This includes the Coinbase Card and Coinbase Earn. Except it aims to bring higher value between merchants and users. Details about the traditional products of Coinbase can be read in the review of Coinbase, which further sheds light on how a new user can get started on the platform.
The announcement may have contributed to the rise in the value of SOL. The token is rallying above the $110 milestone, exchanging hands at $112.22 with a surge of 0.79% in the last 24 hours. It further reflects a rise of 8.43% and 18.64% in the last 7 days and 30 days. Bitcoin is still above the $50,000 mark, way higher than the resistance margin of $48,000. SOL is poised to set a new ATH by the end of this year or surpass $115 soon.
Coinbase continues to dominate the market in the US, even though Binance Exchange is gaining traction when it comes to daily trading volume. The influence is restricted to the US region, as the embrace is widespread due to spot Bitcoin ETF issuers. Coinbase, in its last financial report, highlighted quarterly (Q4-2023) revenue of $273.4 million.
Source: https://www.cryptonewsz.com/coinbase-commerce-suggests-merging-solana-with-lightning-network/