Today, Blockchain.info announced the release of the Thunder Network, which is an off-chain bitcoin payments solution using smart contracts, currently in the alpha-testing phase. The Thunder Network is the first usable implementation of the Lightning network for off-chain bitcoin payments that settles back to the main bitcoin blockchain. The Thunder Network has the ability to make live, nearly instant, and ultra-cheap transactions.
Read more:
http://bitcoinx.io/news/articles/blockchain-announces-the-alpha-release-of-the-thunder-network/