Back in 2012, shortly after Graham Krizek first encountered Bitcoin and started contributing to Bitcoin Core while developing his own Bitcoin-based applications, he pinpointed a significant hurdle for Bitcoin developers.

As Krizek explained to Bitcoin Magazine, “What struck me was that everyone was constantly rebuilding everything from the ground up. There wasn’t a cloud platform where you could simply set up Bitcoin infrastructure and immediately start building on it.”

Initially, Krizek didn’t feel driven to tackle this problem head-on. His main focus was still on his software engineering career outside the Bitcoin world. He worked for various startups and even large corporations like Salesforce, while contributing to Bitcoin projects in his spare time.

However, his perspective shifted when he discovered the Lightning Network.

He recognized its game-changing potential and understood that simplifying its usability was crucial for widespread adoption.

Krizek recounted, “When Lightning came onto my radar, I thought, ‘This is definitely the next step for Bitcoin adoption, the key to really propelling it forward.'”

He continued, “Then, I saw the exact same pattern emerge as with Bitcoin itself. Everyone was starting from scratch during development, but the challenges were even greater because Lightning is considerably more complex.”

“It became clear to me,” Krizek said, “We need a cloud provider where setting up and maintaining a Lightning node is as simple as clicking a button. It needs to be readily available so we can develop applications and build the projects we want to much more easily and quickly.”

And that’s precisely what Krizek set out to create.

He shared the initial version of his creation with friends and acquaintances, many of whom started using it so heavily that the project began demanding more and more of his time.

Krizek recalled, “Usage grew to the point where I had to consider, ‘Okay, I either need to shut this down because I can’t keep up with it, or I need to turn this into a real business and go all in.’”

He chose the latter path, and by late 2020, he had officially founded Voltage.

How Voltage Works

Voltage simplifies the often intricate process of using Lightning by enabling users to deploy a Lightning node and establish a channel with just a few clicks.

Even though Voltage hosts your node in its cloud environment, your public key, peers, channels, balance, and transactions remain completely private, as all traffic is routed through Tor.

While your node operates within the Voltage cloud – supported by Google Cloud and other providers – Voltage also provides assistance with liquidity management and various forms of customer support.

In essence, Voltage eliminates the difficult aspects of working with Lightning, while actively supporting its users. This is all aimed at facilitating wider Lightning adoption, especially among institutions. Krizek also mentioned that they are developing new products and capabilities to assist even traditional financial firms in integrating Lightning.

“Voltage’s mission is to make Bitcoin and the Lightning Network accessible to every business across the globe,” Krizek stated.

“Lightning is truly remarkable, offering incredible potential. However, it can be quite challenging to understand fully, particularly for businesses to integrate into their operations—especially those outside the typical Bitcoin or crypto space,” he elaborated.

“We make it straightforward to use and integrate.”

What Types Of Companies Are Using Lightning?

Over the past year, prominent companies like Coinbase, a major crypto exchange, and Nubank, Latin America’s largest fintech bank, have begun incorporating Lightning into their systems.

Krizek anticipates this trend of crypto exchanges, neobanks, and other financial service platforms adopting Lightning to continue gaining momentum in the coming year.

“Financial companies are definitely going to lead the charge because the ability to have sub-second settlements with practically no fees is incredibly valuable, especially for large payment processors handling global transactions,” Krizek explained.

Furthermore, Krizek believes companies beyond the Bitcoin, crypto, and finance sectors will also start exploring Lightning in 2025, largely thanks to companies like Voltage making it more accessible.

“2025 will be a significant year for us to expand beyond our niche market,” Krizek predicted.

“The technology was still somewhat complex for a major company like Walmart to confidently say, ‘Let’s integrate this now.’ Even with Voltage, we haven’t always been perfect at making Lightning completely effortless,” he acknowledged.

“However, I believe we’ve made significant progress in the last year, and we have much more innovation on the horizon.”

Another major obstacle for companies considering Lightning adoption is the inherent risk associated with Bitcoin’s price volatility.

However, this risk is eliminated if companies utilize Tether (USDT) over Lightning instead of Bitcoin, a capability they will soon have.

Tether (USDT) On Lightning

Krizek is enthusiastic about the introduction of USDT on Lightning, believing it will stimulate growth across the network.

“I think we’re going to see a wave of new products and solutions built around it,” Krizek stated.

“It’s not just my personal excitement; a large portion of our customer base is also very eager for it. They’ve been specifically requesting it from us because stablecoins are currently the most prevalent use case in crypto,” he added.

“Combining stablecoins with near-instant settlement and minimal fees is a massive breakthrough, especially with transaction fees on Tron becoming more costly. People are actively seeking alternatives.”

(Tron has become the leading blockchain for stablecoin transactions due to its historically low network fees.)

Regarding the potential security risk of USDT running on Lightning to Bitcoin (which I personally believe it poses), Krizek doesn’t appear concerned.

“It doesn’t worry me at all,” Krizek asserted.

“I believe we’ve progressed since the Blocksize War regarding hostile takeovers. I don’t think it’s as easy for a large entity to coerce the Bitcoin ecosystem as some tried to during the Blocksize Wars,” he added, referring to concerns about Tether potentially gaining undue influence over Bitcoin.

“Furthermore, integrating something like Tether (USDT) on Lightning is beneficial because it’s a peer-to-peer network—not reliant on public consensus. This provides greater control to individuals to decide, ‘If you don’t want to participate in USDT transfers, simply opt out.’”

Moving Forward In A Pro-Bitcoin Regulatory Environment

U.S. Crypto Czar David Sacks is an investor in Voltage (through his venture capital firm, Craft Ventures). This investment suggests he understands the Lightning Network and Bitcoin’s role as a medium of exchange.

So, does this imply the U.S. is on the verge of fully embracing Bitcoin as a medium of exchange?

According to Krizek, not quite yet.

“Right now, everyone is urging the government to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, focusing on Bitcoin as a store of value,” Krizek explained.

“Over time, we’ll definitely hear more and more discussion about Bitcoin as a payment method. We just need to navigate through this Strategic Reserve conversation first and then explore, ‘Okay, what else can we achieve with this?’” he added.

However, Krizek finds the fact that the government is even portraying Bitcoin in any positive light to be exciting. Since he entered the Bitcoin space in 2012, government attitudes have ranged from dismissal to outright antagonism.

“When I first got involved with Bitcoin, it was completely ignored. The last four years have been particularly challenging for companies like ours,” Krizek stated.

“With the new administration, we’ve definitely observed a shift in tone. We’re still working through certain issues, but we are definitely turning a corner and moving in a positive direction,” he added.

“I’m genuinely excited to see what the coming year holds. I believe it will be a positive one.”