Company Founder: Graham Krizek

Established: October 2020

Headquarters: Wichita, Kansas

Employee Base: 17

Website:

Ownership: Private

In 2012, Graham Krizek discovered Bitcoin and started contributing to Bitcoin Core and developing his own Bitcoin applications. He realized a persistent problem that was affecting Bitcoin developers.

“I observed that everyone was creating everything from scratch repeatedly,” Krizek explained to Bitcoin Magazine. “There was no cloud platform where you could instantly set up Bitcoin infrastructure and start developing against it.”

At that time, Krizek didn’t act on this issue, as he was focused on his position as a software engineer outside the Bitcoin space, working for various startups and large companies like Salesforce, while contributing to Bitcoin in his spare time.

However, his perspective changed when he learned about the Lightning Network.

He recognized its potential and understood that it would need to be simplified if it were to be widely accepted.

“When I discovered Lightning, I realized that this is the next stage of Bitcoin adoption, the aspect that’s going to truly elevate it to the next level,” Krizek stated.

“Then, I noticed the same pattern repeating with Bitcoin. Everyone was starting from scratch during the building process, but the challenges were more severe because Lightning is much more complex,” he added.

“I realized that we need a cloud provider where you can just press a button and have a Lightning node operating and managed for you. It can just be available so we can develop applications and construct the projects we want to create much more easily, much more quickly.”

With this in mind, Krizek started working on creating such a product.

He introduced the initial version of it to friends and colleagues, many of whom started using it so frequently that the project demanded more of his attention.

“The usage increased to a point where I had to make a decision, either shut this down because I can’t maintain it anymore or convert this into a business and do it seriously,’” Krizek stated.

He chose the latter, and by the end of 2020, he had established Voltage.

The Functioning of Voltage

Voltage simplifies the complexities of utilizing Lightning by allowing users to deploy a Lightning node and set up a channel quickly.

While Voltage hosts your node in its cloud, your public key, peers, channels, balance, and transactions all remain private, as all the traffic passing through the node is transferred via Tor.

While your node is operating in the Voltage cloud, which is supported by Google Cloud and several other cloud service providers, Voltage also assists users in managing liquidity and provides other forms of customer assistance.

In essence, Voltage simplifies the challenges of engaging with Lightning, all while supporting its users. Its goal is to help organizations adopt Lightning more easily. Krizek also noted that they are working on new products and capabilities to assist even traditional finance companies with the integration.

“The objective of Voltage is to make Bitcoin and the Lightning Network accessible to every business globally,” Krizek stated.

“Lightning is fantastic. It offers a lot of incredible capabilities, but it can be really challenging to understand it and especially to incorporate it for business operations—especially for businesses that aren’t in the Bitcoin or crypto space,” he added.

“We simplify its usage and integration.”

Which Companies Are Adopting Lightning?

Over the past year, significant companies like major crypto exchange Coinbase and Latin America’s largest fintech bank Nubank have integrated Lightning into their operations.

Krizek anticipates this trend of crypto exchanges, neobanks, and other financial service platforms adopting Lightning to continue in the coming year.

“Finance companies are certainly going to be the largest adopters because the value of sub-second settlement with zero fees is an incredible addition to a major payment processor that executes global payments,” Krizek stated.

Moreover, Krizek anticipates companies outside of the Bitcoin, crypto, and finance sectors also starting to use Lightning in 2025, partly because companies like Voltage are making it easier to do so.

“2025 will be a significant year for branching out of our niche market,” Krizek stated.

“The technology has still been a little rough around the edges for a large company like Walmart to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to integrate this now.’ Even with Voltage, we haven’t been perfect all the time in making Lightning super easy to use,” he mentioned.

“I think we’ve made significant progress in the last year, though, and we have a lot more coming.”

Another significant obstacle for companies considering adopting Lightning is the risk associated with managing bitcoin’s volatility.

However, that risk doesn’t exist if companies send Tether (USDT) over Lightning instead of bitcoin, which they will soon be able to do.

Tether (USDT) and Lightning

Krizek is positive about USDT coming to Lightning, as he believes it will stimulate growth on the network.

“I believe we’re going to have many products and solutions around it,” Krizek stated.

“It’s not just my personal excitement about it. A lot of our customer base is very excited about it. They’re requesting it directly from us because stablecoins are essentially the biggest use case in crypto today,” he added.

“When you pair stablecoins with sub-second settlement fees and very low costs, that’s a massive unlock. With fees on Tron becoming more expensive, people are seeking an alternative.”

(Tron has been the leading blockchain for stablecoin transactions due to its historically low fees.)

As far as USDT operating over Lightning potentially posing a security risk to Bitcoin (as some believe it does), Krizek doesn’t seem worried.

“It doesn’t concern me at all,” Krizek stated.

“I believe we’ve progressed since the Blocksize War in terms of takeovers, as I don’t think it’s as easy for a large institution to influence the Bitcoin ecosystem like some did during the Blocksize Wars,” he added, referring to Tether possibly gaining disproportionate influence over Bitcoin.

“And it’s even better to integrate something like Tether (USDT) on Lightning because it’s a peer-to-peer network—it’s not public consensus. So, you have much more ability to say ‘Hey, if you don’t want to participate in the USDT transfers, just don’t do it.’”

Navigating a Pro-Bitcoin Regulatory Landscape

U.S. Crypto Czar David Sacks is an investor in Voltage (through his venture capital firm, Craft Ventures). This indicates that he has some understanding of the Lightning Network and the role of bitcoin as a form of exchange.

So, does this imply that the U.S. is on the brink of accepting bitcoin in such a capacity?

According to Krizek, not quite.

“Everyone is currently pressuring the government for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which sees bitcoin as a store of value,” Krizek explained.

“Over time, we will certainly hear more about bitcoin as a means of payment. We just need to conclude this Strategic Reserve discussion first and then ask, ‘Okay, what else can we do with this?’” he added.

The fact that the government is presenting Bitcoin in any sort of positive light at all, though, is thrilling to Krizek. Since 2012, when he first entered the Bitcoin space, the government has either ignored Bitcoin or been antagonistic towards it.

“When I started with Bitcoin, it was completely overlooked, and the last four years were very tough for companies like us,” Krizek stated.

“With this new administration, we’ve definitely noticed a shift in tone. We’re still working through certain things, but we’re definitely rounding a corner and heading in the right direction,” he added.

“I’m really enthusiastic to see where that can lead over the next year. I believe it will be a positive one.”