Square Crypto grants $100K to bitcoin's Lightning Network watchtower The Eye of Satoshi

Bitcoin • June 2, 2020, 7:55AM EDT

Square Crypto has awarded a new grant to Talaia Labs, which is building bitcoin’s Lightning Network watchtower called The Eye of Satoshi.

The grant amount is $100,000, Talaia Labs CEO Sergi Delgado told The Block. He added that the funds would be used “exclusively for Bitcoin development, with a current focus on the watchtower.”

Watchtowers are third-parties that monitor the bitcoin blockchain for discrepancies between on-chain transactions and closing off-chain channels with invalid states. Square Crypto said The Eye of Satoshi monitors blockchain transactions “to protect you from peers closing the channel and taking your coins.”

It went on to say that Talaia also "improves censorship resistance by making certain attacks harder,” and that it will integrate with several Lightning Network implementations.

Notably, Square Crypto recently unveiled its own Lightning Development Kit — to help developers integrate the Lightning Network with their bitcoin wallet applications.

The latest grant marks Square Crypto’s sixth grant. The firm has previously offered donations to bitcoin developers Jon Atack and Tankred Hase, pseudonymous bitcoin Lightning Network developer “ZmnSCPxj” and the BTCPay Foundation.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.