Alena Vorobiova hadn’t thought much about bitcoin before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Whereas money providers often charge transfer fees of 10% or more when you send $100 from the U.S.
The process of downloading a crypto wallet onto Vorobiova’s phone, transferring bitcoin over the Lightning Network from the U.S.
The tutorial took less than 60 seconds and involved four basic steps: We downloaded the Blue Wallet app and generated a one-time invoice in the form of a QR code.
With the guidance of Naumenko, Vorobiova downloaded the Muun wallet app, a different type of self-custodial wallet for bitcoin and Lightning, made a four-digit pin, and generated an invoice as a QR code.
“A Lightning wallet app is akin to a bank, in that sending money between banks requires them to speak the same language,” said Czyz, a developer with Jack Dorsey’s team known as Spiral .
She scanned the QR code into her phone using the Muun app, transferred her bitcoin into the ATM’s account, and the ATM in turn issued the money.
For Vorobiova, this was more of a fun experiment.
Some Ukrainians use it to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions, while others have found that Lightning is a cheap and fast way to receive donations and remittances from anywhere in the world.