US grassroots adoption: the Bitcoin Lightning party in Portland

cointelegraph.com:

There is “grassroots evidence” that “America is adopting Bitcoin,” according to Clay Graham, founder of Rapaygo and a Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) enthusiast. 

At a Bitcoin Lightning festival held in Portland, United States over the weekend, the Bitcoin LN clocked more than $200 (four million Sats) in just three hours.

Hailed as “Puddle Town on Lightning Rails,” Portland’s Bitcoin Party was a space where “vendors, food carts, artists all accept Bitcoin.” Graham told Cointelegraph that there was also a “food cart pod” that acted as a “business attraction destination to Bitcoin fans who want a Bitcoin beach type experience.”

Fiat money was of course, not allowed, and popular Bitcoiner Dennis Porter MC’d at the festival. In this tweet he showed how easy it is to pay for goods using the LN:

I paid ZERO fees to accept #Bitcoin instantly for my shirts. Can Visa do that? pic.twitter.com/34haSgIB6G

Graham told Cointelegraph that the event was judged to be a success if “people could spend Bitcoin freely as they would fiat.”  In total there were:

Graham concluded that the LN made payments at the party a breeze: it was “easier than cash, all cheaper than cards and having tons of fun on a sunny day.”

A near-instant layer-2 payment network built on top of the Bitcoin base chain, the LN is ideal for a party setting. Pubinno, the company behind the Lightning pour a pint tool was built with festivals in mind, while LNBits build open-source payments tools like split payments tools and offline solutions to make payments tech even smoother. 

Tiago Vasconcelos, cofounder of Aceita Bitcoin and an LNBits FOSS contributor told Cointelegraph:

Built on the LN, LNBits’ free open source solutions are closely competing with Visa and Mastercard.