Author: Paul Sztorc 2022-02-28 00:20:47
Published on: 2022-02-28T00:20:47+00:00
In a discussion about the Lightning Network (LN), ZmnSCPxj proposes a technique for LN that would meet two requirements: the layer 1 UTXO must never change, and new part-owners should have new pubkeys that are unknown until after the channel is opened and confirmed on the blockchain. However, Paul disagrees with this technique and suggests using channel factories instead. ZmnSCPxj argues that channel factories do not meet the second requirement because all five fixed pubkeys must be known before the factory-open is confirmed, not after. The discussion then shifts to the importance of onboarding new users to Bitcoin and how it can affect the success of the project. Paul emphasizes that the low onboarding rate would kill the project, regardless of the benefits of payment nirvana. The difference between the rates of onboarding and payment is not relevant, as each rate must meet the design goal. The conversation then turns to the idea of continuous operation of a sidechain versus a channel factory and the amount of data being published per block. Paul argues that onboarding users to a sidechain could take enormous pressure off of layer 1 compared to an "LN only" strategy. For example, hypothetically, 10 large-block sidechains would be 320 bytes per block, which is essentially nothing. These sidechains could onboard 33% of the planet in a single month, even if each onboarding required an average of 800 sidechain bytes. Although not a perfect idea, once onboarded, these users can immediately join the LN from their sidechain, and all of the sidechain LNs would be interoperable.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T16:40:26.020965+00:00