Bitcoin Price Prediction: Bitcoin’s First Real Use-Case in IoT Using Lightning Network Is a Success
Daily Bitcoin News Update
Yesterday, we proposed why the “Lightning Network” (LN) may turn out to be a game changer for Bitcoin. A day later, we hear of Bitcoin’s first real use-case using LN that has bolstered our belief in Bitcoin.
Japan’s third-largest utility company has just tested the Lightning Network on Bitcoin for a groundbreaking application. The test was a success!
The utility company, Chubu Electric Power Co Inc (TYO:9502), in partnership with an Internet of Things (IoT) startup, Nayuta, carried out a dummy transaction using Bitcoin running LN to pay for an electric car at a charging station. This demonstrated the first practical use of Bitcoin in the IoT industry.
A Bitcoin payment was sent to an electric vehicle charging station connected to a car. Almost instantaneously, the charging station processed the payment and began charging the vehicle. This is a big deal because instant transactions have, so far, been unheard of in the Bitcoin world.
Without LN, we could never have imagined Bitcoin being used in the IoT industry. Just as the CEO of Nayuta points out, “For IoT and blockchain applications, real-time payments are needed. We showed that second layer payments can be the solution.” Lightning Network is the additional layer of payments he’s talking about. (Source: “Japan’s Third Largest Utility Tests Bitcoin On Lightning,” CoinDesk, March 13, 2018.)
Just to remind my readers, the Lightning Network is a code that runs on top of the blockchain as a second-layer solution. With LN, Bitcoin may be able to process millions of transactions in a second.
For the Bitcoin platform that has, up until now, taken hours and sometimes days to process one transaction, Lightning Network is a dream come true.
Now, I’m thinking of a more futuristic application of this technology that may involve zero human intervention. What I’m suggesting is a scenario where we may not have to feed an input to the charging station. Our autonomous cars may, one day, be paying for themselves on Bitcoin’s decentralized platform. Cryptocurrency technologies like IOTA are already working on similar projects.
Bitcoin’s blockchain technology makes for a better alternative to a fiat currency payments platform because blockchain is decentralized, free of human error, and safer and securer to handle monetary transactions.
While we’d have expected prices to flash green following this significant development, it’s distressing that BTC prices have actually shifted into reverse gear.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
Bitcoin prices have tumbled more than four percent since yesterday. On Coinbase, one bitcoin was selling at a bargain price of $8,779.02 at the time of writing.
Analyst Take
We believe LN is the knight in shining armor that Bitcoiners have long been waiting for. Lightning Network will revive Bitcoin’s utility as a means of digital payments, allowing it to further penetrate the mainstream payments world. So we reiterate our bullish Bitcoin price prediction with a $15,000 price target.
