The US Patent Office issued a patent to Square for developing a technology that provides a solution to issues faced by merchants in transactions.
“All cryptocurrencies face the same drawback in that they are not widely accepted. Presently, cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are not accepted by most retail merchants, or even by most online merchants.”
The group pointed the delays that happen while conducting a transaction involving a cryptocurrency. There have been small breakthroughs that attempt to resolve time delays, for example purchasing a sandwich using a crypto in almost real-time even though it could take hours to document it on a blockchain.
The privacy offered by cryptocurrencies could expose vendors to criminal activities such as money laundering. The volatility of cryptocurrencies also acts as a threat to the business interests of merchants.
Let us take the aforesaid sandwich example once again for providing better clarity about the issue. Payment would be requested to the platform as per customer’s choice of asset and then approved for the vendor to receive entire amount as per their choice of asset, instantaneously.
In its blog post, Square revealed the beginning of a Lightning Development Kit (LDK) two days before. Bigger than a node, LDK would facilitate creation of tailor made wallet and apps, including an API, language support and other demo applications. Lightning points out that the developments would result in facilitating cost effective Bitcoin payments “as common as cash used to be.”