The Zap[1] Lightning Network wallet’s Olympus feature[2] is almost ready for launch — well, sort of.
The much-anticipated addition to Zap’s services, which would allow the wallet’s users to buy bitcoin via Lightning with USD for direct deposit into their Zap wallets, is being rolled out in a new form.
“Strike,” as it’s now being called, serves the same function that Olympus was supposed to, but through different means. With Olympus, Zap users would have a Lightning Network payment channel “pushed” to them with whatever amount of bitcoin they purchased through the service. With Strike, instead of instantly converting the cash to bitcoin for each user, Zap will hold a static dollar balance for each user and send Lightning payments for them on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
Yes, the model is custodial, Zap Founder Jack Mallers explained to Bitcoin Magazine. But it comes with plenty of upside. For instance, now Zap users can top off their accounts with, say, $20 and use this to spend bitcoin as needed. They aren’t buying bitcoin directly, but rather a claim on $20 worth of bitcoin at any point in time, so the service removes any exposure to volatility (instead of having a balance of 0.002 BTC, you have a balance of $20).
Zap decided to ship this model after it began testing the Olympus beta and confronted a few hurdles in the way of tax implications and user experience.
“There were many obstacles and aha moments,” Mallers said. “Volatility, taxes and the need to set up a Bitcoin wallet and own bitcoin were all barriers to mainstream adoption.”
Striking the User-Friendly Balance
The panacea, then, was to remove the complexity all together. Given Lightning's technical barriers to entry and demanding upkeep, Zap decided that it would
