Breez Wants to Make the Lightning Network More User Friendly

New announcements around Bitcoin’s Lightning Network have been coming almost nonstop lately, with new exchanges, wallets and other services popping up seemingly every day.Two weeks ago, Zebpay announced its Lightning integration. Last week, Lightning Power Users officially launched and Bitrefill released an improvement to its Thor service. Just this morning, Sparkswap announced the public beta of its Lightning-powered exchange platform.Now, there’s a brand-new wallet coming to market with a focus on ease of use. Today, Breez has announced that its mobile Lightning wallet is available in open beta.Hiding Lightning’s ComplexityPerhaps the most unique attribute of Breez is that it doesn’t include an on-chain bitcoin wallet. In other words, it’s all Lightning.“Lightning only,” Breez CEO Roy Sheinfeld confirmed in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “This is one of the elements that simplifies the user experience.”Sheinfeld pointed to the fact that no bitcoin wallet management is necessary and users have a single balance — rather than both an on-chain and a Lightning balance — as examples of this simplification.Although on-chain funds cannot be stored in Breez, the app includes the ability to move funds from traditional, on-chain bitcoin wallets to the Lightning-based Breez via Submarine Swaps, which were popularized by Lightning Labs Infrastructure Lead Alex Bosworth.“Breez allows its users to add or remove funds via on-chain tr...