Bitrefill a company working on the second layer solution for Bitcoin – the Lightning Network has developed a platform that simplifies the process of working with LN. The so-called “Thor Turbo” was demoed on Friday during the Understanding Bitcoin meet held at Malta.

The second layer solution which was designed to solve the scalability problems of Bitcoin poses some challenges to the less technically savvy. This is the problem that Bitrefill hopes to solve with its Thor Turbo – making the not-too-easy aspects of the use of the LN less challenging to would-be transactors on the network.

Ongoing Work On LN

This revelation comes at the time that developers are still working on the Lightning Network. This shows that there are many other companies that are focused on the other aspects of the project such as ease of use of the LN.

The LN in itself is a breakthrough on the Bitcoin scaling issue with the capacity to transact instantly across the world but the setback is that users of the Bitcoin network would have to convert their BTC to lighting before they could use the network and traditional BTC transactions are not instantaneous.

Solution to Lag

BTC to lightning conversions require six confirmations on the bitcoin network taking roughly 60 minutes. This is the duration required to be sure that the network has accepted the transaction so the sender and recipient is assured that the funds are secured by the network.

A Smart By-Pass

This delay is one of the issues solved by the Thor Turbo, the app developed by Bitrefill creates a “turbo channel” which bypasses the traditional network channel. This would allow holders of cryptocurrencies such as litecoin, dash, bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin to use the channel.

The concept was first developed by Martin Habovštiak, but the practical aspect of it was developed by developer Anton Kumaigorodskiy in Bitcoin Lightning Wallet.

Showcasing the potentials of ‘layer 2’ scaling technology

Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho explained:

“We want to show the world what’s possible with ‘layer 2’ scaling technology. Words can’t do justice to the feeling of using bitcoin instantaneously. Everyone needs to try this, and once they do, they will never go back. This expands the entire paradigm of what’s possible for internet commerce.”

There are many companies working on second layer solution. Bitrefill has been interested in the project for quite a while. The Thor launched in January has the aim of making the receipt of lightning payments easier.

Thor Turbo has the advantage of adding speed enabling the faster transactions on the LN.

Bug Issues On LN

Despite the accomplishments, there are still work to be done especially due to the fact that the Lightning Network still has some vulnerabilities that have to be fixed.

 “Some will call us reckless, but we’re here to pull bitcoin forward and make onboarding the world to bitcoin and lightning as frictionless as possible,” said Carvahlo.

By recklessness, he was referring to the risks inherent in the use of a platform that has not been declared safe from bugs such as could be said about Bitcoin.