Independent Bitcoin advisor to institutional investors, Pierre Rochard recently claimed that he had developed a plugin for Microsoft Excel that could help users in making Bitcoin payments directly. The spreadsheet program’s plugin will use the Lightning Network (LN) to make fast payments in the world’ premier cryptocurrency.
Neutrino’s Excel Capabilities
Called Neutrino, Rochard’s program lets users enable Bitcoin payments for Excel. It reportedly connects with the Lightning Network to make Bitcoin payments directly from Excel spreadsheets. Rochard announced his new program on Twitter, saying:
“The LND node software now runs from *within* the Excel plugin. With neutrino, that means that a Windows + Excel user can be making and receiving LN payments with a few clicks.”
The Lightning Network is a second layer payment solution that helps in making Bitcoin transactions faster. Excel users will not have to operate a full-node to make use of this functionality. More specifically, the project that he is referring to is called the Lightning Network Daemon (LND) which was released in beta version 0.5.
Not a Solution for Regular Users
The LN software may not be too friendly to regular users. Shitcoin.com CEO Andreas Brekken noted earlier that the network has many glitches. In his experience, he found it to be an impractical solution even for the “highly technical users.” He went on to say that the codebase of the network is filled with several bugs and that the software has a very high rate of transaction failure.
Could this mean that Rochard’s plugin is depending on an inherently flawed system? No. When the LN matures, it will solve the scalability issues of the Bitcoin network which has plagued the network for a very long time now. Rochard also suggested the same. He clarified to his followers that his program is still in nascent stages of development.
He also notified his followers that the plugin is “not for everyone.” It is designed for power users, i.e., people who are highly experienced in using Excel. While the plugin may not be the right choice for regular users, it could be very beneficial for individuals and businesses in the financial sector as they can be defined as “power users” of Excel. The public release of the payments plugin is expected to be released at the end of this month.
