Bitcoin
Stablecoins on Bitcoin coming soon, says Lightning Labs CEO – TradingView News
Stablecoins running on Bitcoin are getting closer to reality through new functionality built by Lightning Labs using the network’s Taproot upgrade implemented in late 2021.
Elizabeth Stark, CEO of Lightning Labs, revealed the Bitcoin development company’s latest development at the FT Live Crypto and Digital Asset Summit in London.
The company’s co-founder also gave an eloquent explanation about Bitcoin and the Lightning Network to an audience of traditional financial participants.Cointelegraph
Lightning Labs’ Taproot Assets protocol is building functionality to bring stablecoins and tokenized assets to Bitcoin. According to Stark, developers have made significant progress toward this goal, culminating in testing transactions in Lightning:
“We released an initial piece of code in October and recently demonstrated the first asset transaction in Lightning. The idea is to have crypto-dollars and stablecoins on the Bitcoin blockchain.”
Stark added that traditionally, these digital assets operate on other blockchains that suffer from high fees and other issues. She argues that the Bitcoin network is perhaps best placed to facilitate the use of stablecoins because “it is the most secure and decentralized blockchain.”
Value of Bitcoin and stablecoins as a store of value
Stark went on to discuss the merits of Bitcoin 
The Lightning Labs CEO said stablecoin adoption has grown dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, with users largely based in emerging markets.
“The most persistent users are those looking for a stable store of value. In some cases, they use Bitcoin. In other cases, they use stablecoins, and in some cases it is a combination of both,” Stark explained.
The two biggest stablecoin players, Tether 
For those living in countries facing hyperinflation or precarious economic environments, the choice to maintain a stable currency is motivated by the need for a store of value.
Lightning-Powered Stablecoins Will Be Superior
Given the significant growth in the value of the stablecoin market, Stark said there is a need for infrastructure to enable the issuance of stablecoins and real-world assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.
“That’s why we’re building this protocol, this technology now. We are not issuing assets, we are building the tracks. Asset issuers will use our technology to issue real-world tokenized assets,” Stark explained.
The CEO added that financial institutions could issue gold assets, stablecoins and other fiat-backed assets in Bitcoin and then carry out transactions over the Lightning Network.
Perhaps most telling was the relative cost compared to other blockchains and mainstream traditional financial systems that Stark highlighted:
“If you look at Visa, where fees in the US can be upwards of 3%, or even 1% fees, transacting stablecoins on Lightning can be dramatically lower, a penny or less than that.”
Stark added that this could allow people to transact globally competitively at much lower fees than through traditional networks.