Lightning2049 showcases the latest progress in Bitcoin's second-layer infrastructure

The Lightning2049 conference, hosted in Singapore, showcased significant progress in Bitcoin's Layer 2 ecosystem. Key announcements and discussions highlighted the transition of these technologies from concept to mainnet deployment.

LN Node: Introduced as a self-hosted Lightning node supporting BTC, Taproot Assets, and RGB, enabling users to earn BTC yield through channel mining.
RGB Protocol: The RGB v0.11.1 mainnet launch enables scalable, private smart contracts and asset issuance for use cases like stablecoins.
Emerging Use Cases: Demonstrations included Lightning network applications for AI micropayments, stablecoin billing, and pay-per-use API services.
Bitfinex Perspective: Presented Lightning as Bitcoin's native yield layer, allowing users to earn BTC directly by providing liquidity.
RGB Atomic Swap: The first successful mainnet atomic swap for RGB assets was demonstrated, enabling trust-minimized trading.
El Salvador: Served as a case study for national-level Lightning adoption in tourism, payments, and government markets.
Stablecoins: Discussion indicated a growing trend of stablecoin migration to Bitcoin L2s like RGB and Taproot Assets for scalability and privacy.

The event underscored that Bitcoin's financial infrastructure is maturing, with active development in multi-asset support, decentralized finance, and real-world applications.

October 2, 2025 | Singapore

Lightning2049, hosted by Lnfi Network and RGB Protocol Association and sponsored by Bitfinex, brought together developers, infrastructure teams, and investors from around the world to engage in in-depth discussions on the development of Bitcoin's second-layer ecosystem.

The event showcased multiple Lightning, RGB, and Taproot Assets protocol practices that have been launched on the mainnet, covering emerging use cases and real-world deployments, reflecting the continued evolution of Bitcoin's financial infrastructure.

Key topics and speech content

LN Node: A multi-asset, self-hosted Lightning yield node

Lnfi co-founder Darius Koh introduced LN Node, a self-hosted Lightning node that supports BTC, Taproot Assets, and RGB.

Users can open channels through LN Node, obtain BTC income through Channel Mining, and perform operations and management through the web interface or natural language commands (MCP).

Supports cloud and desktop deployment, suitable for node operators seeking multi-asset support and profitability.

RGB: Bitcoin asset layer has been launched on the mainnet

Birkan Kayadibi, co-founder and COO of the RGB Protocol Association, announced that RGB v0.11.1 has officially launched on the mainnet.

RGB supports scalable, privacy-preserving smart contracts and client-verified asset issuance mechanisms, and can be applied to scenarios such as stablecoins and tokenized assets.

Combined with the gradual improvement of the Lightning network and tool ecosystem, RGB is building Bitcoin into a programmable financial infrastructure platform.

Emerging Use Cases for Lightning

Bobby Shell, Vice President of Marketing at Voltage, demonstrated Lightning's application exploration in emerging scenarios such as AI micropayments, stablecoin billing, and pay-per-use API services.

These trends indicate that Lightning is gradually expanding from a single payment network to an infrastructure supporting diverse financial services.

Bitfinex: Lightning Becomes Bitcoin's Native Yield Layer

Bitfinex R&D strategist Federico Tenga introduced that by providing liquidity and routing payments through Lightning, users can directly obtain BTC income without staking, lending or third-party custody.

Combined with the RGB protocol, Lightning has the potential to become the infrastructure for Bitcoin-native decentralized financial activities.

RGB Atomic Swap on Lightning

KaleidoSwap co-founder and CTO Walter Maffione demonstrated the first RGB-based atomic swap operation, which was successfully executed on the mainnet.

The transaction was completed through KaleidoSwap’s RFQ model decentralized trading infrastructure, enabling trust-minimized transactions between RGB assets.

El Salvador: Lightning National Application Practice

Will Hernandez, Bitfinex Business Development Manager for Latin America, shared examples of Lightning applications in El Salvador, covering tourism, merchant payments, government capital markets, and more.

El Salvador has become a representative case of national-level deployment of Bitcoin infrastructure.

Stablecoins and Bitcoin's Second Layer

Sagun Garg, global innovation director at Julius Baer, said the future of stablecoins is gradually migrating to Bitcoin's second-layer protocol.

He pointed out that RGB, Taproot Assets and Ark are currently the most promising solutions, which can achieve scalability, privacy protection and final settlement without relying on the EVM chain.

Roundtable discussion highlights

Roundtable 1: Investment Opportunities in Bitcoin Infrastructure

Guests pointed out that more and more early-stage capital is paying attention to Bitcoin native tools, but user experience, development tools and liquidity access still need to be improved.

Roundtable 2: Application of USDT on RGB

The discussion focused on the logic of USDT's expansion into RGB and how to promote its large-scale use among institutions and ordinary users.

Roundtable 3: Asset Issuance and Multi-Asset Evolution on Bitcoin

Participants believe that Taproot Assets, RGB, Ark and Spark are jointly driving the evolution of Bitcoin into a multi-asset protocol platform.

Summarize

Lightning2049 comprehensively showcases the protocols and applications that have been launched on the mainnet in the Bitcoin second-layer ecosystem, including stablecoin issuance architecture, decentralized trading protocols, programmable payment scenarios, and self-hosted revenue nodes.

RGB v0.11.1 has been launched on the mainnet
LN Node Launches Lightning Node Supporting Multiple Assets and Income
RGB atomic swap has been successfully demonstrated on the mainnet
El Salvador showcases Lightning's national application
Stablecoin issuers and financial institutions are gradually turning to Bitcoin's second-layer protocol

This event highlights:

Bitcoin's financial infrastructure has moved from concept to implementation, and is gradually taking shape and entering the stage of practical application.