Ark is a protocol that offers simple onboarding, low and predictable fees, instant payments, Lightning interoperability, and full control over your bitcoin. In this talk, we'll explore Ark through bark, Second's implementation of the protocol. Ark works today—without covenants! We'll also briefly examine how covenants can make Ark more efficient and powerful. Ark isn't a replacement for Lightning, nor does it try to be. It's another piece of the puzzle for scaling Bitcoin, with a different set of trade-offs. Together, Ark and Lightning enable some interesting new constructs that we'll introduce in this talk.

This session will be valuable if you want to understand Virtual Transaction Outputs (VTXOs), explore the future of virtual channels, or learn how Lightning integrates with Ark today.