I scream. You shout. Crypto screams for ice cream?

At least, that's what three students hope to launch an ice cream delivery service in San Francisco, a service that will only work on Bitcoin's Lightning Network when it launches.

Dubbed Block and Jerry's, a play on the popular American brand Ben and Jerry's, was created to give real consumers a reason to advance advanced payment technology, which after years of Ideation, is at this moment starting to see real tests and use.

"We think it's a motivator to jump into bitcoin and start playing with the Lightning Network and understand it," said Rob Durst, co-founder of Block and Jerry, at CoinDesk.

With the news, Block and Jerry's also join a growing small number of companies (both existing and experimental) that have established stores connected to Lightning's growing network. Now that close to 1,000 nodes are strong, this dynamic is showing increasing interest in scaling technology, positioned as a way to move blockchain transactions in order to allow bitcoin to handle more great adoption.

As such, the interest of having a brand new host involved in cryptocurrency is at the heart of the Block & Jerry's project.

"Basically, we're just a hotbed of guys who are interested in crypto-currency and creating web applications for people," explained developer Jeff Tang.

The team not only developed the application, but also designed a step-by-step guide for Lightning's configuration and network transaction

Durst explained:

"We are creating a very simple experience." I want to buy ice cream, I am not the most experienced bitcoin user or even a computer user, "How do I intervene?" "

And with the ice cream in the foreground, Durst said that Block & Jerry's should be able to get a wave of new users excited about the technology.

"I think it's cool, I'm going to buy a sticker, but my mother does not care," he says.

A treat

Still, it's better to think of Block and Jerry's as an experiment, a vision of how merchants could use Lightning to accept bitcoin in the future.

For example, the founders are not exactly after the money – they do not accept any other cryptocurrence (or even credit card) – and by using the chat service of their website, they are suspicious about delivery times.

The names of ice cream such as "Doge Food", "Vitalik Garcia" and "Segwit2x" show that the website is intended for a niche clientele.

But it's worth noting that the idea behind Block and Jerry is still a bit controversial given that sending real Bitcoin payments on Lightning remains risky.

Elizabeth Stark, the CEO of Lightning Labs, who develops a lighting implementation, is one of the remarkable members of the technology movement who fears that users may lose money. money on the network, and that such problems could hold back development.

It noted, in particular, that the publications of uture Lightning may not be compatible with the current backbone, which means that the payment chains started today may be closed with a new version.

In response to the launch of Blockstream's sticker shop, one of the first to demonstrate a lightning-based merchant experience, Stark tweeted "It's one thing to have people change their code by themselves, it's another thing for a company to promote a software that is going to to make users lose money. "



As such, Stark and the others will probably not have Block & Jerry's approval.

Freezing the Brain

That said, the project's co-founders believe that the transaction on testnet does not seem "as significant".

And, in part, the effort can be seen as an effort to create a more immediate consumer experience via Lightning. The Block & Jerry team believes that the more people interact with the first technologies, the more they could be inspired to contribute to its development.

Up to now, Lightning has mostly been used by experienced crypto developers because it lacks a neat user interface and asks users to become familiar with the command line code.

Still, the team believes that he has created a guide that will greatly facilitate interaction with the network, not only for users of cryptography, but also for developers who do not want to use it. have no programming skills specific to the blockchain.

"We do everything we can with the skills we have," said Tang.

And Durst echoed this by saying, "I think it's a nice demonstration of what is possible for a more average developer."

Still, what is perhaps most notable is that disguised in the project is an excitement and an urgency to make sure that Bitcoin is ready for traditional adoption.

Durst concludes:

"If you do not earn a lot of money, and that every dollar counts, I think you need a platform that offers faster and cheaper confirmations, and I think the Lightning Network can do it. "

Image of ice cream via Shutterstock

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