One of Blockstream’s “best kept secrets”: a new bitcoin miner called “Cyberhornet”. BTC miners will have to be patient. Because: The hardware is only supposed to revolutionize the market from the third quarter of 2024. But that’s not all that Blockstream announced in its media briefing.

In addition to efforts in the mining industry, the infrastructure company is focusing on Layer 2 functionality in Bitcoin. Accordingly, the in-house product Core Lightning is still one of the most popular options for operating a node.

Lightning compatible cloud solution

In this context, Blockstream introduced Greenlight. The new LN-compatible cloud hosting solution for companies, merchants and Bitcoin applications is designed to significantly reduce the technical effort involved in accessing the Lightning Network (LN). time for criticism? After all, Bitcoiners don’t like hosting at all. But far from it: Greenlight works with cloud hosting, but maintains the integrity of the private keys at all times, like Blockstream does in one press release explained.

The icing on the cake: Greenlight is compatible with Blockstream Green, the in-house non-custodial wallet. The Bitcoin company is thus taking another step towards mass adoption. Blockstream co-founder and Bitcoin pioneer Dr. Adam Back told:

The average person is not an IT specialist. So it could be that access to your bitcoins will be recoverable in the future. This is a controversial topic for many. If you use a custodian, they must be able to identify you in order to give you your coins. This raises the question of whether this information can be passed cryptographically to the custodian without showing your passport or birth certificate [an Dritte] gives. Maybe there will be something like that in the future.
Blockstream CEO Dr. Adam Back

Such a function has recently led to a lot of criticism against Ledger. The wallet manufacturer wanted to arm itself for the future with the recovery feature. Because: The further the adoption progresses, the more the highly complex topic of Bitcoin hits a broad mass of people who have never dealt with this technology before. Blockstream CPO Jeff Boortz takes a similar view:

I think many users are learning a brand new technology that is so alien and different in the way money has been interacted with up until now. We see that with Lightning and even with Bitcoin. We need to address the limitations that make users afraid to launch and make self custody safe and convenient for a wide range of users.
Blockstream CPO Jeff Boortz

Blockstream: Layer 2 scaling is in full swing

An all-time high should not be missing either. Not (yet) with Bitcoin. But with the Layer 2 network developed by Blockstream Liquid. The transaction volume of the Bitcoin sidechain, designed for financial applications, has risen sharply since autumn last year and recently reached an all-time high.

Towards the end of 2023, the company wants to reveal more details about the ongoing development of Bitcoin technologies – including about the mysterious miner.