In the rising adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) in the world, the leading role of the Lightning Network in projects such as the Bitcoin Law, in El Salvador, is very important. With it, users can transfer BTC quickly, easily and very securely.
Stone Ridge Holdings Group, the third private company with the most Bitcoin holding 10,000 BTC, announced the creation of the Wolf accelerator, which will bring together groups of founders and teams from all over the world in New York 4 times a year.
Wolf CEO Kelly Brewster explained that the program will bring in four cohorts a year, each consisting of eight to twelve teams, or 30 to 50 founders. From New York, they will work eight weeks to focus on building the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and the Taro protocol.
“They're generic enough and usable across such a wide range of applications that it's like saying you're going to start an HTTP-centric accelerator. It's a specific technology, but the business use cases can be incredibly broad. The fact that we are very focused is a big part of the advantage and can be a huge draw for founders.”
Each group will receive initial funding of $250,000. At the end of each show, one team will be chosen by a panel of judges to receive an additional $500,000 in funding. Brewster clarified that he will not provide the name of the companies that will finance the accelerator. However, he noted that they are all already working with Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
Advances in the Lightning Network
In April, Arcane Research, an on-chain analytics firm, published The State of Lightning Volume 2, focusing on the reasons behind the surge in layer 2 payment solution adoption. uniques on the platform had increased 100%, to more than 88,000.
Then, in October 2022, it was reported that the capacity of the Lightning Network reached the milestone of 5,000 BTC per transaction. In the same month, the service that Lightning Network provides to El Salvador's Chivo Wallet was released to the public. Brewster commented that Lightning's growth in the past year has been extraordinary.
“At Stone Ridge, we have been watching Lightning for quite some time […] The launch of Wolf should be a clear signal that Stone Ridge believes and invests long-term in Bitcoin. It is clear that the environment is difficult, but it is time to make investments a couple of years from now”.
Two companies that have bet heavily on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network are MicroStrategy and Strike. In late September, Strike raised $80 million to accelerate Lightning's expansion.
And during the first of October, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor awarded the best memes about the network. This support allows us to think that they are part of the companies that are financing Wolf of Stone Ridge.
