Lightning Labs Introduces New Authentication Protocol for Metered Payments 

Lightning Labs, one of the engineering teams dedicated to solving the scalability issues of Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lightning Network, has introduced Lightning Service Authentication Tokens (LSAT), a protocol designed to enable people to make payments on the web without necessarily submitting their personal information such as emails or credit card details, according to a blog post on March 30, 2020.

Lightning Network Now Supports Metered Payments 

As part of its mission to make Bitcoin (BTC) better and maintain its lead as the number one currency of the Internet, Lightning Labs has rolled out Lightning Service Authentication Tokens (LSAT), a new protocol standard for authentication and paid APIs powered by Satoshi (sat), the smallest unit of bitcoin (BTC).

As stated in its blog post, LSATs functions as both an authentication and payment mechanism,  making it possible for a service or business to offer users a new tier of paid APIs that supports metered payments.

Importantly, the Lightning team has made it clear that the new LSAT protocol preserves the privacy of users on the Lightning network, as it eliminates the need for users to submit their personal details while making payments on the web, which in turn can be used to track their activities on the Internet.

Olaoluwa Osuntokeun, CTO at Lightning Labs wrote:

“In this new web, email addresses and passwords are a thing of the past. Instead, cryptographic bearer credentials are purchased and presented by users to access services and resources, In this new web, credit cards no longer serve as a gatekeeper to all the amazing experiences that have been created on the web. LSATs enables the creation of a new more global, more private, more developer-friendly web.”

The team says LSAT is like a ticket that enables holders to access a particular service or resource on the web. Once a user purchases a ticket with sats via Lightning, that particular user can do whatever he/she pleases with that ticket.

The user can decide to pass the ticket onto a friend to access the same resource or a weaker version of it.

What’s more, the Lightning team has hinted that once the LSAT protocol is properly integrated into Lightning wallets, mobile apps, browsers and more, the new solution could potentially replace the credit card method of payments as it’s more seamless and private.

“The LSA standard enables a number of new use cases, pricing models, and applications to be built, all using the Lightning Network as a primary money rail,” added Osuntokeun.

In related news, earlier in February 2020, BTCManager informed that Lightning Labs had raised $10 million in its Series A funding to accelerate the development of the Lightning payments technology.