Author: Olaoluwa Osuntokun 2020-05-06 00:31:32
Published on: 2020-05-06T00:31:32+00:00
The future of light client protocols is a topic of interest due to ongoing developments in the BIP 157 implementation in Core. While relying on full-nodes for trust-minimization may shift with Lightning Network (LN), designing a mobile-first LN experience presents challenges related to security and privacy. One of the significant challenges is building a scalable, secure, and private chain access backend for millions of LN clients.Cheaper and more efficient protocols like BIP 157 may face a bottleneck due to insufficient full-nodes willing to serve those clients, which could lead to centralized services. To address this issue, monetary compensation may be introduced in exchange for servicing filters to price chain access resources. This proposition may suit within the watchtower paradigm, where another entity is delegated some part of the protocol execution, alleviating the client onliness requirement. However, how to avoid such a "chain access" market from turning into an oligopoly is an open question.It is essential to consider reasonable alternatives to relying on full-nodes' niceness to increase the health and security of the backbone network like deploying more outbound connections. Peer diversity is crucial to avoid every BIP157 server being on few ASNs for fault-tolerance. While there is no hybrid implementation, it can be argued that distinction between client and peer does not hold because one may start as a client and start synchronizing the chain, relaying blocks, etc.Moreover, the LN security model diverges hugely from basic on-chain transactions, making it important to consider a reasonable alternative to relying on full-nodes' niceness to increase the health and security of the backbone network. In conclusion, while relying on full-node operators being nice and servicing millions of LN mobiles clients may work for now, it is important to consider a reasonable alternative for the future. Monetary compensation may need to be introduced in exchange for servicing filters to price chain access resources, but how to avoid such a "chain access" market from turning into an oligopoly is an open question. Having peer diversity is crucial to avoid every BIP157 server being on few ASNs for fault-tolerance.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T23:18:42.047536+00:00