What is a Lightning Address? In this article we explain what it is and how you can make use of it.
A Lightning Address is an address that looks like an email address for example ‘[email protected]’. With a Lightning Address you can receive lightning payments at any time, even if you are offline. And you can send a Lightning payment to any exsisting Lightning Address with ease.
Why do I need a Lightning Address?
The Lightning Address protocol was created to make lightning easier than ever before. It allows you send money like you send emails — instantly and abundantly. And all you have to know is a simple address which look exactly the same as email addresses.
With the Lightning Address we build on top of the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network’s ability to send Bitcoin instantly and with (almost) no fees is a superpower for billions of people in the global south who are denied access to banks.
With Lightning everyone can send and receive payments and transfer value with others without having to ask anyone for permission.
Why Lightning Addresses are better
The good part about Lightning Addresses is that it’s much easier to use. Traditionally, sending money via the Lightning Network requires you to generate a Lightning Invoice. That is a very long code that nobody can remember. It looks like this:
lnbc29900n1pjrxt5epp5akutkp087dlet8xjrfttjs35vc6n5j9k0rftsp90gwl8u0vquhtsdpv2phhwetjv4jzqcneypqyc6t8dp6xu6twva2xjuzzda6qcqzpgxqzjcsp5skufu8xtr09c4f6l84njy3pl2ftan9nnrvlgg7wwynhz6c20mzws9qyyssqcu2crn3yfweclsc3zlscxz0urhue8v5ev47p44970594shvqvc8znc99f6yy0y5mjgewrd3gqc7valyq4lw3ggkgm2zj69t4xn9eyaspygum29Lightning Invoices are not very sexy and hard to use. The Lightning Address protocol makes the usage of the Lightning Network much easier. Because all we need to do to send a payment is to enter a human readable email address.
Which Wallets Support Lightning Addresses
A growing number of Lightning wallets already support Lightning Addresses. It shows that wallet developers and wallet service providers see that it’s an important feature.
The editors choice are Wallet Of Satoshi because it’s the easiest to sign up. Unfortunately WoS doesn’t allow you to customize your username. If you want to design your own Lightning Address you can go with Blink wallet and the alby web wallet.
