Photo: Breez / Medium
On Monday, June 17, payments platform Breez unveiled its Bitcoin payments app for iPhone in an attempt to boost the Bitcoin (BTC) adoption. As per the company announcement, this is the first project built on the Bitcoin network Lightning client called the Neutrino.
Solving Bitcoin’s Mobility and Usability Problems
Breaking the ice is the non-custodial wallet and payments platform, Breez. Under the vision of having a Lightning Economy, Breez aims to make Bitcoin mobile to a point where individuals can use it easily. Breez’s vision of Lightning Economy is to break-free people from the clutches of intermediaries handling their money and give the owners an absolute control.
In a statement, Breez founder Roy Sheinfeld states that their payments app solve issues that merchants and retailers are facing currently. He says that the Breez app resolves issues of disputing purchases and receiving funds. Thus, “it’s suitable for every kind of purchase right down to a cup of coffee or paying back a friend,” says Sheinfeld.
Using the Breez Bitcoin Payments App
Upon the installation of a Breez app by a user or merchant, it will automatically open a payments channel to the Breez hub. The hub has a direct connection to the Lightning nodes. This allows users to transact with anyone present on the network.
Both the parties involved in the transaction have to cryptographically sign an updated balance sheet. The signature is to ensure that the transaction reflects the changing amount of Bitcoins present in the respective wallets of both the parties. After finishing the transactions, the resulting balances get registered on the blockchain. In case of dispute, the two parties can use the recently used balance sheet to recover their balance sheet.
Thus Breez solves a very important issue associated with the immutability of the Bitcoin blockchain. Although, immutability is a great feature for a public blockchain which makes sure that no one can tamper with the records. However, in the case of dispute, there has to be a mechanism which can reverse the last transactions.
After launching its beta version for Android, Breez gained hundreds of new users in just two months. Banking on its success model, the company has now announced a beta for iPhone which will be first running on Apple Developer’s TestFlight. Scheinfeld says that having an iOS product along with Android gives them access to 98% of global smartphone users.
This latest announcement comes with Breez securing $500,000 investment from Fulgar Ventures and Recruit Strategic Partners. The company states that it will make additional investments for developing Breez’s point-of-sale Lightning app for merchants to accept Bitcoin payments instantaneously.
Yuki Tanaka, Vice President at Recruit Strategic Partners and investor in Breez, believes that there will be a heavy demand for blockchain-based POS terminal in the future.
