The CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, has connected his corporate email address ‘[email protected]’ to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. This strategy will allow anyone to transact Bitcoin through Saylor’s official email. 

After the MicroStrategy CEO announced the incorporation of his official email address to the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a couple of his followers made small donations to his account.

MicroStrategy’s History With Bitcoin

MicroStrategy is a publicly traded business intelligence company that has gained significant attention in crypto for its large investments in Bitcoin. 

In August 2020, MicroStrategy made headlines when it announced that it had purchased $250 million worth of Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Since then, the company has accumulated Bitcoin as part of its corporate strategy. As of September 2021, MicroStrategy held approximately 114,042 BTC, with a total investment of over $3 billion. 

MicroStrategy’s CEO, Michael Saylor, has been a vocal advocate of Bitcoin, calling it “digital gold” and arguing that it has the potential to be a superior store of value to traditional fiat currencies.

How Does The Lightning Network Work?

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is a layer 2 payment protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that enables faster, cheaper, and more scalable transactions. 

One of the critical components of the Lightning Network is the Lightning Address protocol. A Lightning Address is a user-friendly identifier that can be used to receive payments on the Lightning Network. 

It is similar to an email address or a Twitter handle. It is designed to make it easier for users to send and receive payments without dealing with the complexity of Bitcoin addresses. To create a Lightning Address, users need to set up a Lightning wallet supporting the Lightning Address protocol. 

Developers can replace a standard Lightning payment request with a virtual identification process, like an email address. When someone wants to send a payment to a Lightning Address, they simply need to use their Lightning wallet to create a payment invoice using the Lightning Address as the payment destination. The payment will be routed through the Lightning Network, and the recipient will receive the payment instantly.