Bitcoin set to reclaim $20,000 as Lightning Lab releases Taro protocol code to “Bitcoinize the dollar”

• The Taro protocol from Lightning Labs has been created to become the world’s financial network for Bitcoin transactions and transfers.
• The Taro network will be developed to support the transfer of assets over Bitcoin and later the lightning network for instant and cheap settlement.
• Bitcoin has maintained its three-month-long critical downtrend at $18,600 after losing $20,000 two weeks ago.

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency network in the world, this is well established, but Bitcoin is also one of the most time-consuming and energy-consuming mediums of transactions in this space. 

These flaws led to the birth of Ethereum, Cardano and other chains, which focus on making crypto transactions cheaper and faster. However, Lightning Labs, on September 29, took a step closer to bringing these features back to Bitcoin.

Bitcoinizing the dollar

Lightning Labs, the ones behind the lightning network, released the initial code for their Taro protocol, which aims to bring stablecoin functionality to Bitcoin Layer 2. This release will enable developers to mint, send and receive assets on the blockchain. 

Since its announcement in April, the anticipation for Taro has only been increasing since the protocol will allow Taproot-powered protocols to issue assets that can be easily transferred over Bitcoin.

Lightning Labs also has plans to extend this to the Lightning network, which will provide instant, high volume and low fee transactions.

Calling it the first step in the process of “Bitcoinizing the dollar,” Lightning Labs stated,

“With Taro…we can build a world where users have USD-denominated balances and BTC-denominated balances (or other assets) in the same wallet, trivially sending value across the Lightning Network just as they do today. This leap forward will accelerate the path to bringing bitcoin to billions.”

At the moment, the protocol’s code release is only limited to testnet usage, eventually leading to the mainnet release post developer feedback.

Bitcoin on the charts

BTC has not been the best performer in a long while, as after the rally at the beginning of September, the king coin fell back down, and BTC’s price has since been stuck below the $20,000 mark.

However, trading at $19,493 at the time of writing, BTC has been maintaining the critical support line established three months ago following the June crash. While definite signs of a rally aren’t apparent, the MACD does seem to be highlighting slight bullishness on the way.

Bitcoin 24-hour price chart

The indicator line crossing over the signal line conducting a bullish crossover re-establishes the possibility of a recovery, provided BTC continues climbing gradually. As evinced by the Bollinger Bands, the lack of volatility could keep the price swings to a minimum.

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