Wait a minute, is River Financial involved in El Salvador’s bitcoin story? Since when? Apparently, the highly respected financial institution is now processing the Chivo Wallet’s Lightning transactions. Which seems like a step in the right direction, but also comes with seemingly unnecessary counterparty risk. Why isn’t El Salvador handling the operation internally? And, will River Financial improve the Chivo Wallet’s usability?
🔔 The time has come! 🔔
⚡ Announcing RLS: River Lightning Services ⚡
🔌 A Lightning Network gateway designed to power the next generation of payments
🇸🇻 RLS is proud to power LN transactions for El Salvador’s Chivo wallet
Let’s go 👉 https://t.co/XGAhSUg5mR pic.twitter.com/OqglyvAXyT
— River Financial (@River) Oktobar 11, 2022
U niti na Twitteru najavljujući RLS: River Lightning Services, svoj novi proizvod, River Financial je bacio bombu. Bez ikakve pompe, izjavili su, “RLS je ponosan što pokreće LN transakcije za El Salvadorski Chivo novčanik.” Povezali su se sa službena stranica proizvoda, koji sadrži Chivo logo u sekciji istaknutih klijenata. Na sajtu kompanija pojašnjava šta tačno proizvod radi:
“River Lightning Services (RLS) is the fastest, simplest API for enabling Bitcoin Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals in your product without running any Lightning infrastructure yourself.”
To zvuči savršeno za kompanije, firme, trgovine. Da li je to prikladno za cijelu zemlju? Možda i nije, ali je mnogo bolje od misterije koja je okruživala projekat Chivo Wallet. Da li je Algorand na bilo koji način bio umešan, i ako jeste, zašto? Šuškale su se glasine, ali niko nije znao sa sigurnošću. Danas znamo da se River Financial brine za Lightning stranu stvari. Kompanija sa povoljnom reputacijom koja vodi neke od većih čvorova na Lightning Network-u.
Šta je RLS kompanije River Financial?
Predstavljajući novi kastodialni proizvod, River Financial CEO Alex Leishman claims that “bitcoin is beginning to cross the chasm from a store of value to a transactional currency.” And what better place to test that theory than El Salvador? For its part, River Financial was “the first financial institution in the United States to support Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals for clients.” The infrastructure they developed is the basis for the new product.
“Prošle godine smo shvatili da bi ova infrastruktura i naša operativna ekspertiza mogli biti korisni za druge firme koje žele integrirati Lightning funkcionalnost u svoje aplikacije, pa smo tajno izgradili javni API za nju. Od tada smo uključili neke nevjerovatne organizacije u ovaj API. Jedan od njih je El Salvadorski Chivo novčanik, za koji s ponosom pokrećemo Lightning transakcije skoro godinu dana.”
So, River Financial has been processing Chivo’s Lightning transactions for a year now? Interesting. Back to RLS, River Financial threatens the world saying that they’ll start “with Bitcoin and eventually supporting dollars and other assets over Lightning as the Taro project matures.” And then, the company explains how the product works beneath the hood:
“Kada se pridružite RLS-u, dobivate račun na koji možete financirati i ukloniti iz lanca. Obrada LN povlačenja je jednostavna kao i upućivanje API poziva sa fakturom za plaćanje. Možete jednostavno generirati fakture za depozite i mi ćemo obavijestiti vaš sistem putem webhooka kada se faktura plati.”
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Rizik
Let’s not beat around the bush, River Financial is an American company. A fully compliant financial company that would have to follow every order from the US government. That company has custody of all of the funds from every Salvadoran that uses the Chivo Wallet. President Bukele and his bitcoin team are putting all of their citizens’ BTC within reach of the US government, risking censorship and seizure. Just for convenience.
The bitcoin network is built in a way that allows the Salvadoran government to do it internally. El Salvador can and should hold their own keys and run their own Lightning nodes. Sovereignty is important.
S druge strane, bebi koraci. Sada su u rukama River Financial-a; što nije idealno, ali je napredak. Nadamo se da će El Salvador izgraditi vlastite interne strukture i timove. U međuvremenu, River Financial obećava da će “nastaviti s isporukom novih funkcija kako bi našim klijentima omogućio pristup najnovijim funkcijama koje Lightning Network može ponuditi”. Nešto što, budimo iskreni, nijedna vlada nije spremna da uradi.
Ipak, trebali bi biti spremni da drže svoje ključeve.
Istaknuta slika autora Sven Lachmann od Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
Source: https://bitcoinist.com/river-financial-powers-chivo-lightning-trans/