Speaking to Atlas21 microphones, Marco Argentieri, CEO of Ark Labs, talked about the Ark protocol, its synergy with LN and the debate on OP_RETURN.
During the Tuscany Lightning Summit 2025 in Viareggio, Marco Argentieri, CEO of Ark Labs, explained to Atlas21 microphones why Ark is not a competitor to the Lightning Network and discussed the role that the protocol can play in the ecosystem.
The conversation opened with a reflection on Bitcoin’s role as programmable money: “I believe Bitcoin must be programmable money not only because Satoshi himself put a script in Bitcoin, therefore a programming language, but also because when you start working with merchants, companies, payment processors, we realize that we need Bitcoin to be programmable to make payments effective,” Argentieri explained.
According to the CEO of Ark Labs, the success of the swap model that made wallets like Muun popular shows users’ desire to use LN, but without its technical complexity. “Muun was one of the first wallets to use this model and is still today among the most downloaded precisely for its simplicity,” the CEO observed.
But programmability doesn’t only serve end users. Argentieri draws attention to merchants, who represent the other side of the coin in payments. “Those who receive payments – merchants – for accounting reasons and to have regularity of cash flow, would like to have a less volatile currency,” he explained. The solution, for Argentieri, could be represented by derivative contracts that allow accepting bitcoin without suffering volatility, exploiting hedging strategies, and to do this “you need Bitcoin to be programmable.”
Ark as complementary technology
Regarding the initial perception of Ark as a “Lightning killer,” Argentieri clarified: “It was short-term marketing” that generated misunderstandings. “From the beginning I have always seen Ark and Lightning as two completely different and complementary technologies.”
Ark Labs’ strategy demonstrates this: “The first thing we did was a partnership with swap provider Boltz,” Argentieri recounted. Lightning channel managers need continuous swaps to rebalance channels: in this way Ark helps Boltz not to have to introduce an additional blockchain, the CEO of Ark Labs commented.
According to Argentieri, the synergy relationship works in both directions: “Lightning helps Ark because Ark is based on a client-server approach with operators, and Lightning can be used as a lingua franca to go from one ark to another.” The result is a system that Argentieri describes as “banks that cannot confiscate your funds.”
On the issue of self-custody scalability, the CEO of Ark Labs provided a realistic assessment of current limits: “It is mathematically impossible for every user to have their own UTXO. Ark offers a solution through VTXOs (Virtual Transaction Output).” Argentieri used a comparison to clarify the difference: “I always describe a UTXO as having your own land, like buying a beachfront house in Miami in the sixties. It’s your property, but if you want to sell it will be slow and expensive.” VTXOs, instead, are “like an airbnb – very simple to enter and exit, but you have to pay rent.”
The crucial aspect is unilateral exit from the network: “Ark gives the possibility of not doing vendor lock-in. It’s like a rental where I know that eventually I can always transform it into a house. I won’t do this with a few satoshis, I’ll wait to accumulate enough to afford a whole UTXO,” Argentieri stated.
B2B before retail
Argentieri sees Ark primarily as B2B infrastructure rather than retail: “Initially there was the idea of Ark as a mobile wallet for coffee payments, but I think it’s the opposite.”
“Doing the same things that can already be done with traditional fintech systems is a mistake.” The real opportunity, according to the CEO of Ark Labs, lies in use cases that only Bitcoin can enable: “When there are still Bitcoin startups that would like to pay their employees in bitcoin but cannot due to lack of infrastructure, there is the potential.”
The approach foresees initial adoption oriented to the corporate world: “Bitcoin must first take companies and sophisticated operators. There are the new use cases that you couldn’t do before Bitcoin.” The famous “coffee paid with bitcoin”? It’s not a technological problem, it’s an adoption problem, Argentieri commented.
Arkade: platform for off-chain contracts
Arkade, “the name of our online platform,” represents the practical implementation of this vision, Argentieri explained, specifying that it is “a set of technologies and approaches.” The goal is to create “the first platform to execute Bitcoin contracts off-chain instead of on-chain, using Ark to give unilateral exit from the network.”
The architecture maintains Bitcoin philosophy: “I believe the UTXO model is much better than the Ethereum model, but obviously we have to make these contracts off-chain.”
The OP_RETURN case
On the OP_RETURN debate, Argentieri expressed two positions: “At a technological level I am in favor of removal because we are seeing that the ecosystem is looking for other approaches,” he explains. But the problem is not technical, it’s political: “Bitcoin is not just technology but also people, humans, culture.”
The criticism of the CEO of Ark Labs concerns timing: “I am against the fact that Bitcoin Core in version 29 has this modification because many people are not in favor currently. There’s no hurry, let’s do it in version 30 so we have another six months to deepen the debate.”
For Argentieri, the discussion revealed a governance problem: “From a political point of view, this shows a communication error. Bitcoin is no longer a toy for kids but an industry.” And like every mature industry, it needs adequate governance structures, the CEO of Ark Labs suggested. Argentieri’s proposal includes the introduction of specialized figures: “Just as there are core developers, there could be core communicators who say ‘wait, let’s think about it’ before making decisions that impact the community.”
