Stellar Development Foundation released a formal specification for adopting Lightning Network technology to improve transaction scalability. The roadmap targets testnet launch by April 1 and production implementation by autumn, addressing demands from partners like Kik and IBM.
Stellar has published a formal specification detailing its plan to implement Lightning Network technology, originally developed for Bitcoin. The roadmap aims to launch initial elements on testnet by April 1, with production-ready implementation targeted for autumn. Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb emphasized that scalability is critical as partners like Kik, IBM, and SatoshiPay plan to significantly increase transaction volume on the network. The project enlisted Bitcoin developer Jeremy Rubin to build a Stellar-specific version of Lightning rather than porting Bitcoin's implementation. McCaleb noted that Lightning adoption across blockchains signals the technology's importance and that Stellar's development could move faster now that Bitcoin has proven the concept.