After a year of hidden development, Lava introduces the first two of its suite of financial products – Lava Free Pay and Lava Exchange – that are poised to change the way we transact with digital dollars and access Bitcoin. In a conversation with Bitcoin Magazine, Lava CEO Shezan Maridia gave an in-depth look at what these new offerings offer and how he hopes they can redefine the self-custodial experience on mobile.
Lava Free Payment: Freeing up global payments
The promise of the digital dollar has always been seamless global payments. However, Maridia says the current user experience is inadequate. “Imagine if every time you wanted to send money via Venmo, you had to first purchase volatile VenmoBucks, incur a fee, and then pay an additional transaction fee in the same volatile VenmoBucks.”
Lava summarizes these issues to provide Bitcoin users with seamless access to stablecoins. “The traditional friction of having to deal with other chains has been completely removed. No unnecessary details are revealed in the application.
Lava Free Pay is a user-trustless streaming service that provides best-in-class stablecoin integration for any Bitcoin wallet on the market. This innovation unlocks free, instant and global payments, making digital dollars more practical and accessible for everyday use.
Maredia explains that it plans to support multiple networks and eventually allow users to send payments across all of them. “Bitcoin-based alternatives could be considered once they mature.” These upgrades will be seamlessly integrated into Lava's existing infrastructure, ensuring users don't have to worry about technical details.
Lava Exchange: Your gateway to self-custody asset management
Navigating the world of Bitcoin and digital assets can be stressful, especially when it comes to finding the best exchange rates and lowest fees. Lava Exchange addresses this challenge by enabling users to purchase assets directly for self-custody and withdraw funds to their bank accounts with minimal fees.
“We thought long and hard about how to offer a cheap and convenient way for users to join self-guarded Lava,” Maridia says.
After considering every market option, his team decided to create their own exchange complex. Using your location and market data, Lava can connect you to the exchange that offers the best rates and lowest fees for the transactions you want. These services are embedded directly into Lava Vault, reducing the steps needed for the user to obtain Bitcoin.
“We believe people should continue to save Bitcoin and spend dollars, and we want to give them the best tools to do that. Lava is designed for those who live a Bitcoin lifestyle.
Under the hood, the Lava is powered by an advanced self-preservation solution called the Lava Smart Key. Building on a decade of mobile Bitcoin development, Maredia believes his company offers the most secure mobile keykeeping system available today.
Lava plans to continue rolling out new products and is already preparing to launch its much-anticipated loan protocol using trustless Bitcoin smart contracts.
Users can get started by downloading Lava Vault from the App Store on iOS or Android, or by visiting the website lapa.xyz.