Bridge to Bitcoin on Spark in Seconds

TL;DR: Garden now supports Spark, Lightspark's Bitcoin Layer 2. Swap assets from 10+ chains to Bitcoin on Spark in a click, trustlessly. 

Gardeners, we've opened a new path into Bitcoin's payment layer, Spark. Built by Lightspark, the company founded by David Marcus, former president of PayPal and the person who ran Meta's payments infrastructure, Spark enables instant, fee free Bitcoin transactions. Garden is now the canonical bridge for Spark, connecting it to the wider EVM and non-EVM ecosystems, making Bitcoin's payment infrastructure accessible from any chain in seconds.

What this unlocks

Pay for your coffee at any Square merchant, from any chain

In December, David posted a video of himself walking up to a coffee merchant and paying with Bitcoin through Spark. No exchange in the middle, no custodian, just Bitcoin settling instantly through Spark.

Two months in, Spark is extending that to assets on Starknet, Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, and other Garden supported chains. Garden handles the swap into Bitcoin on Spark in the background, merchant gets native Bitcoin, and you spend right from your wallet.

Sending money home

Sending remittances internationally still costs 3-7% and takes 1-3 days, depending on the corridor. Spark settles cross borders payments in seconds. Garden makes the entry frictionless, someone holding BTCB on BNB or USDC on Solana can now bridge directly into Spark, which routes through local instant payment rails on the recipient's end. 

Lightning reach without the complexity

Spark is natively interoperable with Lightning; anything bridged through Garden into Spark can also reach Lightning wallets.

Making It Work: Breez SDK

Breez helps apps and services bring instant self-custodial bitcoin to millions of users around the world. Their SDK abstracts the complexity of interacting with both Spark and Lightning; for Garden, this meant a single integration point that simultaneously unlocks Spark and Lightning. 

Garden handles cross-chain execution, Breez SDK makes it super easy to interact with Spark, enabling any supported asset on any chain to be bridged to Spark atomically, in seconds.

Swap into Bitcoin on Spark

Garden now supports direct swaps into Bitcoin on Spark from native Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Starknet, Solana, BNB Chain, and all other Garden supported chains.

Connect your wallet. Select the source chain and asset. Choose Bitcoin on Spark as destination. Execute. The process is atomic and non-custodial; assets remain in user control throughout.

FAQs

How does the swap to Bitcoin on Spark work on Garden? 

Garden uses atomic cross-chain swaps powered by Hashed Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs). Users sign an intent specifying the swap to Bitcoin on Spark. An order book matches the intent with an independent solver. The user locks source assets while the solver locks Bitcoin on Spark. Swap completes when the user redeems by revealing a cryptographic secret, enabling the solver to claim source assets. 

Can I swap Bitcoin on Spark back to other chains? 

Yes. Garden supports bi-directional swaps. Swap Bitcoin on Spark to native Bitcoin L1, WBTC on Ethereum, SOL on Solana, or any supported asset using the same atomic settlement process.

How long do swaps take? 

EVM to Spark settles in under 30 seconds. Native Bitcoin to Spark takes a few minutes depending on L1 confirmation. Spark to other chains completes in seconds.

What's the difference between Spark and Lightning? 

Both are Bitcoin Layer 2s with different architectures. Lightning uses payment channels requiring liquidity management and online presence to receive. Spark uses statechains; no channels, no liquidity requirements, offline receive supported. Spark is natively interoperable with Lightning; funds move between both networks seamlessly. 

About Garden

Garden is the fastest Bitcoin bridge, enabling cross-chain Bitcoin swaps in as little as 30 seconds. It is built using an intent-based architecture with trustless settlements, ensuring zero custody risk for users.

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