Update | Lightspark
David Marcus announced Lightspark's very first public launch since the company's creation last year. Lightspark is a company that believes in an open, interoperable, cheap payment protocol that settles in real time. They came to the conclusion that the Lightning Network was the best to build on, first because it operates on the most secure, battle tested, decentralized blockchain, Bitcoin. Second, because it stands out for its exceptional scalability, performance, cost, and energy efficiency.
However, making the Lightning Network go mainstream requires a significant amount of work to address how complex it is to operate a node on the network, and to make it well connected and reliable.