Casa, a blockchain security startup, has announced the launch of a new piece of hardware preloaded with a Bitcoin Lightning Network node, which it refers to as the “easiest way to use Lightning”.

For those that have never heard of the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN), it’s a second-layer technology that compliments the current Bitcoin network, making payments instant and inexpensive.

Further, setting up a Lightning Node requires some technical knowledge, which even experienced cryptocurrency users may struggle to overcome.

How does the Casa Lightning Node work?

Casa markets their lightning node as the easiest way to use the LN today. The Casa Lightning Node is the first, pre-assembled Lightning Node device equipped with full features.

Casa’s device allows users to use the Lightning Network without requiring much technical knowledge or setup. The company markets the product as a ‘plug and play’.

The Casa Lightning Node comes pre-synced with the Bitcoin blockchain. This feature can grant a user a faster activation of the system, and it also comes with a beautiful web-based interface for Node management.

The Casa Lightning Node device

The hardware sold by Casa comes with a white hard-shell case, power and hard drive adapter cords, the full Lightning and Bitcoin node and a Raspberry Pi with a 1TB hard drive.

For individuals who already have a Casa membership and are clients of the company, the device will be sent as part of their membership.

However, non-members will have to buy it. The first batch was pre-ordered for $300, the price of future batches would be made available on the Casa website.

Casa Lightning Nodes sell out

Casa announced that the sale of only 100 nodes in its first batch, and Casa Jameson Lopp, a well-known Bitcoin developer reported that the first batch of the Casa Lightning node was sold out just a few hours after the announcement.

Casa joins forces with Lightning Ramp

The announcement of Casa’s new Lightning node was made via a post published by Michael Borglin of the Lightning Ramp team.

Casa and the Lightning Ramp team joined forces about eight months ago to build the Casa Lightning Node, which is supposed to be the easiest way to use the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Borglin announced in the Medium post:

“By joining Casa, we combined our expertise in Lightning with their deep key management and security expertise. Together, we’re now releasing Casa Lightning Node, the best way to run Lightning and Bitcoin at your home or in your office!”

The Lightning Ramp solution

The Lightning Network was touted as the solution to transaction issues on the Bitcoin network upon its launch.

However, integrating a lightening network node has proven to be technically challenging, hence the development of technologies such as the preconfigured Casa Lightning Node.

In February this year, the Lightening Ramp was launched to connect exchanges to the Lightning Network, with the goal of bringing the Lightning Network to millions of people as soon as possible.

However, in developing the Lightning Ramp, the technical team were faced with one major problem; key management.

According to Broglin, without developing a good key management software, personal nodes can easily be attacked and hacked and this puts the whole network at risk.

He further stated that to solve this problem, the team focused on building the best personal key manager that they could ever do.

About Casa

The startup’s flagship product is a next-generation private key management solution for individual and institutional investors alike. Their solution is based on a 3/5 multisig approach, as illustrated below.