Founder: Graham Krizek
Date founded: October 2020
Position of the headquarters: Wichita, Kansas
Number of employees: 17
Website: https://www.voltge.cloud/
Public or private? Private
In 2012, immediately after Graham Krizek discovered Bitcoin and subsequently started to contribute to Bitcoin Core and build his applications on Bitcoin, noticed a problem that was hindering Bitcoin manufacturers.
“The problem I saw was that everyone was building everything from scratch – again and again and again,” said Krizek to Bitcoin Magazine. “There was no cloud environment in which the bitcoin infrastructure could simply be turned and being able to start developing against it.”
At the time, Krizek did not feel forced to act on this issue. He was still mainly focused on his career as a software engineer outside the Bitcoin space, working for various startups and large companies such as Salesforce, while contributing Bitcoin in his free time.
But something moved within him when he learned about the Lightning network.
He saw his potential and knew he should have been made easier to use if it was widely adopted.
“When I found Lightning, I said to myself ‘Okay, this is the next phase of the adoption of Bitcoin, the thing that will really guide him at the next level,” said Krizek.
“Then, I saw the same model happen as I did with Bitcoin. Everyone continued starting from scratch during the construction, but the problems were more intense because lightning is much more complicated, “he added.
“I was like” we need a cloud provider where you can simply click on a button and have a lightning knot in execution and maintained for you. “It can be there so that you can develop applications and build the projects that we want to build much more easily, much faster.”
And so Krizek was able to work to create such a product.
He shared the initial iteration with friends and acquaintances, many of whom have started to use it so much that the project required more than his attention.
“The use grew up to a point where I was like, ‘friend, I need to close it because I can no longer keep it or I have to transform it into a company and do it really,” Krizek said.
He decided on the latter and at the end of 2020 he had founded the tension.
How tension works
The tension extracts the complexities of the use of lightnings allowing users to distribute a lightning node and run a channel in a few clicks.
While the tension hosts your node in its cloud, its public key, colleagues, channels, balance and transactions all remain private, since all the traffic unrelated through the knot is transferred via Tor.
While the node is running in the tension cloud, which is supported by Google Cloud and several other cloud service providers, the tension also helps users to manage liquidity and offers other forms of customer support.
In essence, the tension extracts the difficulties of integrating with lightning, while supporting its users in the process. And it does so in the efforts to help institutions adopt Lightning more promptly. Krizek has also claimed to have new products and skills to also help traditional financial companies with integration.
“The mission of the voltage is to make Bitcoin and the Lightning network accessible to all the planet’s activities,” said Krizek.
“Lightning is fantastic. It has many truly surprising skills, but it can be really difficult to wrap the head and above all incorporate it for corporate operations, especially for companies that perhaps are not in the bitcoin or cryptographic space, “he added.
“We make it easy to use and connect.”
What types of companies are using lightning?
In the last year, remarkable companies such as the Major Crypto Exchange Coinbase and the largest Fintech Bank bank of Latin America have incorporated lightning in their operations.
Krizek sees this tendency of cryptocurrency, neoBanks and other financial services on Lightning financial services platforms that continue in the year to come.
“Financial companies will certainly be the largest removals because if you can take the value of the sub-contemporary regulation with zero expenses and apply it to a large payment processor that makes global payments, it is an incredible value value for their business”, has said Krizek.
In addition, Krizek sees companies outside Bitcoin, crypt and financial space that also begin to use lightning in 2025, in part, because companies like tension are making it easier to do.
“2025 will be a great year to start expanding from our niche market,” said Krizek.
“The technology has still been a little difficult around the edges for a large company like Walmart to be like,” Hey, we will connect it now “. Even with the tension, we have not been perfect for the whole time to make Lightning super easy from Use, “he added.
“I think we made giant steps in the last year, however, and we have much more outgoing.”
Another great obstacle for companies that want to adopt lightning is the risk that Bitcoin’s volatility management involves.
But this risk does not exist if companies send the Tether (USDT) on Lightning instead of Bitcoin, which will be able to do soon.
Tether (USDT) on Lightning
Krizek is optimistic about the USDT that comes to Lightning, since he believes he will stimulate growth on the network.
“I think we will have many products and solutions around it,” said Krizek.
“It’s not just me that I’m personally enthusiastic. Much of our customer base is very enthusiastic. They are asking for it directly from us because Stablecoins are practically the greatest case of use of Crypto today, “he added.
“When the Stablecoin mates with sub-according to sub-contracts and very low commissions, it is a huge release. With the commissions on Tron that become more expensive. People are looking for an alternative. “
(Tron was the Blockchain leader for Stablecoin transactions due to how low commissions were historically on the net.)
As for the USDT that runs on Lightning potentially presenting a risk of safety in Bitcoin (as I think), Krizek does not seem worried.
“He doesn’t worry me at all,” said Krizek.
“I think we have advanced by the war to blocks in terms of acquisitions, since I don’t think it is easy for a large institution forcing the Bitcoin ecosystem like some during the blocking wars,” he added, referring to the tether potentially earn out of measure on the Bitcoin.
“And it is even better to integrate something like Tether (USDT) on Lightning because it is a peer-to-peer-non network is a public consensus. So, you have much more ability to say “hey, if you don’t want to participate in USDT transfers, don’t do it.”
Go ahead in a pro-bitcoin regulatory environment
The Tsar Czar David Sacks American is a tension investor (through his risk capital company, Craft Ventures). This would indicate that it has a certain understanding of the lightning network and the role of Bitcoin as a means of exchange.
So, does this mean that the United States are about to embrace Bitcoin as such?
According to Krizek, not exactly.
“Everyone is screaming in the government right now for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, which treats Bitcoin as a value shop,” explained Krizek.
“Over time, we will certainly hear more and more on Bitcoin as a means of payment. We just have to overcome this strategic reserve conversation and then say: “Okay, what else can we do with this?” “, He added.
The fact that the government is painting Bitcoin in any type of positive light, however, is exciting for Krizek. Since 2012, when he entered the Bitcoin space for the first time, the government has fired Bitcoin or has been antagonistic against him.
“When I started in Bitcoin, it was completely ignored and the last four years have been very negative for companies like us,” Krizek said.
“With this new administration, we have certainly seen the movement tone. We are still working through certain things, but we are definitely turning a corner and we head in the right direction, “he added.
“I am really excited to see where he can go in the next year. I think it will be positive. “