Blogs & Articles: It’s a Relai, not a Sprint: Swiss Bitcoin-only Broker Opts for the Breez SDK 🔗 27 weeks ago

It’s a Relai, Not a Sprint: Swiss Bitcoin-Only Broker Opts for the Breez SDK

A bee pollinates a cherry blossom, and I eat the cherry. Three different species interact, and they all benefit. The best deals in life are when individual interests and common interests align, yielding a positive sum where everybody wins.

Relai, one of the most respected and lauded bitcoin brokers in the ecosystem, has opted to integrate Lightning into their app with the Breez SDK, and it’s one of those mutually beneficial deals. Relai is the blossom, Lightning is the cherry, and Breez is the bee. Relai’s 80 000 active users are those with the juice of fast, versatile, non-custodial bitcoin running down their chins.

Breez & Relai, United through Difference

In many ways, Breez and Relai are quite different. Breez started in 2018 with a P2P Lightning payment app, which tens of thousands of users employ regularly for seamless P2P Lightning payments. Earlier this year, we launched our SDK, which allows developers to add non-custodial, P2P Lightning payments to any app on any device within minutes. We do Lightning and only Lightning.

Relai, on the other hand, is a bitcoin brokerage that helps users buy, save, and invest their bitcoin without relinquishing their keys or sovereignty. We do (mostly) payments; Relai does (mostly) bitcoin acquisition and saving. We do second-layer Lightning; Relai does base-layer bitcoin. Our users love micropayments and streaming sats; Relai’s users love saving and investing.

For all these differences, though, Breez and Relai agree on what bitcoin is and what it’s for. We agree that bitcoin must remain disintermediated and shun trust. We agree that bitcoin is the best means for everyday people and entire countries to take control over their destinies through the money they use.

And it’s precisely this concatenation of differences and common interests that makes the partnership so fruitful. The differences are what make a profitable division of labor possible. But our common interests are what make the partnership viable. Our common goals lend our partnership stability and urgency. Like David Hume said,

By the conjunction of forces, our power is augmented: By the partition of employment, our ability increases: And by mutual succour we are less exposed to fortune and accidents. ’Tis by this additional force, ability, and security, that society becomes advantageous.

Our users, the bitcoiners we already serve and the millions more to come, are the society we’re working for.

Cooperation is beautiful. (Image: Rainhard Wiesinger)

Lessons for Bitcoin & Lightning

Since it’s such a great model, let me draw some lessons from the Breez-Relai partnership for Lightning and bitcoin more broadly. First, scale helps. Both companies are established players in their respective niches, and both have spent years building broad and diverse user bases. A broker with Relai’s scale needs a conduit to Lightning with comparable scale and experience, like Breez.

Second, great things can emerge from humble beginnings. Both Breez and Relai started small and have grown organically. A few driven techies with a dream can grow a major undertaking through patience and hard work, without taking shortcuts.

Third, values matter. Not only do both companies adhere to bitcoin values like sovereignty, trustlessness, openness, and freedom out of conviction, adhering to those values has helped us to grow by resisting censorship and keeping our regulatory footprints small.

Fourth, and crucially, bitcoin is viable. Growth, a seamless user experience, low barriers to entry, and solid business models are all compatible with bitcoin values. Compromises like trust, closed software, and taking custody of others’ funds are choices, not necessities.

Everybody Wins

Though an invitation-only beta for now, Relai and their thousands of users will drive traffic to Lightning through Breez. And we’re thrilled. After all, traffic is the source and goal of liquidity. In return, Breez is helping Relai to provide new, useful functions — fast, economical, non-custodial bitcoin payments available in any app and on any device with zero configuration — to their users, improving service and user satisfaction.

The big winners are the users, who gain the benefits of true, trustless bitcoin with functionality on par with (and in many cases superior to) fiat. They can buy bitcoin, save bitcoin, invest bitcoin, and spend bitcoin all in one place.

As Adem, Relai’s CTO and co-founder, puts it,

Our collaboration with Breez fortifies our position at the forefront of the Bitcoin revolution in Europe. By integrating Bitcoin Lightning Wallet with the Breez SDK, we are not only enhancing the user experience but also propelling Bitcoin’s adoption as a daily transactional currency.

Can you feel that juice running down your chin?

(Image: Eve Fox)

It’s a Relai, not a Sprint: Swiss Bitcoin-only Broker Opts for the Breez SDK was originally published in Breez Technology on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.