MicroStrategy to Launch Lightning Network Software Next Year

Business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy, the world's largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, is not only betting heavily on Bitcoin, but will now contribute to the Bitcoin ecosystem with a software solution powered by the Lightning Network, expected to debut as soon as 2023.

Michael Saylor, former CEO and executive chairman of MicroStrategy's board of directors, made the announcement in a Dec. 29 Twitter Spaces post.

He mentioned that the company's bitcoin division is now focused not only on buying and holding bitcoin, but also on how it can contribute more to the ecosystem, and that as MicroStrategy expands from regular software to bitcoin-related software, it will be able to leverage its existing knowledge to provide enterprises with tools for the bitcoin and lightning network ecosystem.

Michael Saylor believes that it is only a matter of time before a lightning network version of the "Netscape browser" is created, and that by then the number of lightning network wallets capable of holding dollars and other cryptocurrencies will reach 100 million users. MicroStrategy has recruited software engineers to build a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform based on the Lightning Network.

Currently, MicroStrategy is exploring areas for Lightning Network services such as online content monetization, enterprise marketing, network paywalls and enterprise internal controls.

We have a team dedicated to this and hope to have something in place by next year," said Michael Saylor. We expect to do something in the first quarter.

MicroStrategy is now the largest publicly traded company in the world in terms of bitcoin holdings, and as you can imagine, the company has become inextricably linked to bitcoin, leading many to question whether MicroStrategy is "making a quick buck" by investing in bitcoin and "not doing its job," leading Citi Securities to downgrade the company's stock, saying that the company's non-industrial investments are too aggressive. The company's non-industrial investments were considered too aggressive.