Lightning Network is a second layer solution for Bitcoin that provides instant execution of micropayments without the participation of third parties in the transaction. Now, a group of developers has launched the first cryptocurrency wallet for iOS devices working with Lightning Network.
CoinClip is a wallet for Bitcoin that is currently in the beta phase of development. The wallet is available in the Bitcoin test network (testnet). The team behind the wallet is formed by developers from Valcour Games and the team announced the launch of the wallet on their official Twitter account, along with a video that explains how to use the wallet: “Just released CoinClip, a Bitcoin/Lightning testnet wallet for iOS! Download now for free.”
CoinClip is the first wallet available for iOS devices, such as iPhones (except iPhone 5) and iPads. Nevertheless, it is not the first wallet for Bitcoin for mobile devices, since Eclair was the first wallet launched for Android in the first week of April and the users are still waiting for the iOS version to be released by its development team.
Despite the fact that CoinClip operates in the testnet of Bitcoin and there is no risk of losing funds, the users on Reddit reported that the app takes some time to synchronize and complete the mapping of payment channels. One of the developers answered and said that the main objective of the development team for the next update is to try to speed up the mapping: “Yeah mapping takes a long time : it’ll go till it finds at least 1000 channels, then let you pay invoices. Basically when it sees a new channel it has to prove its still open, which involves downloading a lot of things from neutrino. (See BIP158 for the gory details). The first few channels mapping will take a while, then it’ll speed up since by then it’ll have all the filters.
The big reason we don’t let you pay invoices earlier is you’ll get some nasty routing errors (since you don’t have enough of the network yet to pay). One of our first goals for the next update is to try to speed up mapping.”
The users on Twitter are enthusiastic about the new wallet, even though some users on Reddit noted that the developers are relatively unknown and advised the others to approach the app with caution once the testing is complete: “I haven’t tested this or even looked into it beyond the link above. Test with caution as you would with any new wallet with no established reputation.”
On a related news, a few days ago the first cryptocurrency exchange included Lightning Network into its platform. This was done by Vaultoro, the first exchange platform for bitcoins that implemented the micropayment protocol. To use this option, the users only need to have an Eclair wallet and to open an account on Vaultoro.
