Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is a second-layer payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin. It enables near-instant, low-fee transactions by routing payments through channels of pre-committed BTC. Ounceo accepts Lightning for any quote and applies a 0.5% discount because settlement is instant and reconciliation overhead is zero.
Where on-chain Bitcoin needs ~10 minutes per block and pays a network fee proportional to byte size, Lightning settles in milliseconds and pays a fee in low single-digit satoshis.
For a $1,500 bullion order, Lightning saves ~5 minutes on confirmation and a few dollars in fees compared to on-chain. The trade-off is that you need a Lightning-capable wallet (Phoenix, Breez, Wallet of Satoshi, Strike, BlueWallet) and outbound liquidity.
Related terms
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. Ounceo accepts BTC both on-chain (2 confirmations, ~20 minutes) and via Lightning Network (instant settlement, 0.5% discount). Quote prices are USD-denominated; the BTC amount is locked for 30 minutes against the live BTC/USD rate at quote issuance.
An on-chain confirmation is one block mined on top of the block containing your transaction. Ounceo requires 2 confirmations for BTC on-chain (~20 minutes), 10 for XMR (~20 minutes), 20 blocks for ETH and ERC-20/TRC-20 stablecoins (~5 minutes on ETH, ~1 minute on TRON, ~10 seconds on Solana).