The lightning network is believed to be the solution to overcome the limitations of on-chain transactions. Instead of settling on the blockchain, the sender and recipient transact within a few seconds and finalize the transaction at a later point in time. This technology is not only used on top of Bitcoin but also works with other blockchains such as Litecoin. Lightning adoption is still lagging behind and the community closely monitors those companies that do and cheers over every single new address.

How can you send Bitcoin to Michael Saylor and why shouldn’t you contribute to his wealth?

MicroStrategy adopts Lightning

The company and perhaps the biggest non-exchange holder of Bitcoin in the world, recently made another step in Bitcoin adoption. E-Mail addresses are now working as lightning addresses and everybody can send Bitcoin to the employees.

This includes the former CEO Michael Saylor who is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion. Saylor informed his followers on Twitter about the change and immediately received a wave of donations to his personal account. Most of his fans were contributing 21 Satoshis by using his personal e-mail address.

The integration is based on the LNURL protocol which allows replacing a lighting invoice with a common identifier such as an e-mail address. The identifier effectively serves as an account and anybody can send Bitcoin without needing an invoice or an QR code beforehand.

Don’t send him more BTC

While a few Satoshis won’t hurt his donors, Michael Saylor is already a billionaire. His company is probably the biggest entity known to hold Bitcoin. Since MicroStrategy keeps on buying its BTC stack will grow in the foreseeable future. Recently, the company bought a sizeable BTC stack in addition to its holding and now has 140,000 BTC in its reserve.

Many spectators have pointed out on social media that the feature is indeed a neat thing, but that there are others who might appreciate a donation even more. Some charities related to Bitcoin are accepting donations via lightning as well and are more desperate for a few dollars extra than Michael Saylor.

On the other hand, this has brought a lot of attention to Lightning and how easy it is to accept micropayments using it. Setting up a wallet just takes a few minutes and payments are nearly instant. This adds another use case to Bitcoin since micropayments wouldn’t be viable as on-chain transactions.