Ark Labs developers are preparing to launch new solutions that facilitate scalable payments with Bitcoin, the most capitalized cryptocurrency on the market.
While Bitcoin has been gaining greater legitimacy as an investment asset and a hedge against inflation since the approval of exchange-traded funds in the United States, one company is working on a protocol that encourages the use of the cryptocurrency as an efficient payment method.
This is Ark Labs, a blockchain development company that has been working on Ark, a new layer two protocol (Layer2) to facilitate Fast, low-cost, hassle-free payments with Bitcoin. All this without sacrificing self-custody and the security of the cryptocurrency.
Through X (formerly Twitter), the developers announced the launch of Bitcoin's new L2 scalability protocol, as well as the official incorporation of the company, which will focus on its development, promotion and maintenance.
On the social network, the developers explained that the new protocol is not intended to replace the Lightning Network, the pioneering solution for scaling payments and transactions with Bitcoin. Rather, they indicated that it is an L2 protocol that will complement Bitcoin's second-layer ecosystem, making it more efficient and attractive to users.
Low-cost transactions with Bitcoin
Ark is designed to optimize off-chain Bitcoin transactions, scaling operations while keeping costs low for users. CEO Marco Argentieri told Bitcoin Magazine that the goal with this new protocol is not to compete with solutions like the Lightning Network or Liquid, but rather to capitalize on the growing demand for scalable BTC payments in the market.
“Ark could benefit from consumer payments and remittances”, indicated the protocol's developers, noting that the Lightning Network could be used more as a settlement layer for larger businesses and entities in the future.
An open source protocol
This new scalability protocol, which began development in 2023, is poised to move into the next phase, Ark Labs said. The company has published Ark’s code on GitHub repositories, emphasizing its focus on maintaining an open-source implementation to encourage contributions from the crypto community.
“Until now, Ark has been a theoretical solution to Bitcoin’s scaling problems. But with the launch of Ark Labs, we are making Ark a reality”, the protocol developers commented.
The open implementation of Ark will allow other blockchain developers to experiment with the protocol and create new applications, such as a digital wallet, and services based on Ark. In fact, Ark Labs developers commented that they have already started working on the first services based on the protocol that will save on transaction fees and guarantee self-custody for users.
These new services and applications are expected to be available later this year.
No compromises on bitcoin custody
Ark Labs developers emphasized that with Ark, users will always maintain custody of their digital assets, even if Ark Service Providers (ASPs) go offline.
ASPs are trustless servers that issue virtual transactions (VTXO) to users upon deposit. These virtual transactions can be exchanged between ASP users off-chain at low cost, as well as sent between users of different ASPs via the Lightning Network or redeemed on the Bitcoin mainnet at any time. According to the developers, this last point is crucial to ensuring self-custody, as it ensures that users can withdraw their funds from the Ark protocol at any time, even if the service provider goes offline or ceases to exist.
Although Ark’s development is in its early stages, the protocol appears to hold promise for the future of Bitcoin as a means of payment and value exchange.
The developers extended an invitation to anyone interested in contributing to the development of the protocol or making some of the first Bitcoin payments through Ark.
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