Published on: 2016-04-26T00:43:41+00:00
In a mailing list conversation, Rusty Russell discusses the use of "landmarks" instead of "beacons" in payment channels. He confirms that, to a first approximation, all payments go through selected beacon nodes. However, he mentions that if the route goes in and out of the same channel, it can be eliminated. The conversation also touches on the pulse protocol, which is based on beacons and updates routing tables but doesn't require all messages to go through the beacons. This approach puts less pressure on the beacons, although the source doesn't know the route beforehand. Rusty asks for thoughts on an update strategy for routing tables, indicating that they haven't made a decision yet.When discussing the variables that determine the best route, Rusty mentions the capacity of channels at time t and the fees charged by nodes. He suggests that payments are generally smaller than channel capacity and that pricing information is dynamic, requiring careful thought. Rusty proposes ratelimiting pricing updates and phasing price changes over time as potential solutions.The topic of handling false advertising is also addressed. Rusty suggests the ability to broadcast the response from a node that refuses to route a payment. If a node signs an invalid message, it can be temporarily blacklisted.Laurent, a Lightning Network newcomer, asks Rusty about routing payments via beacons and whether all payments have to go through the selected beacon nodes. Rusty explains that while some protocols like the pulse protocol update routing tables using beacons, not all messages need to go through the beacons. Instead, messages are routed through the first common ancestor of the source and target in the associated spanning tree. The drawback is that the source doesn't know the route beforehand, but it reduces pressure on the beacons.Laurent also inquires about an update strategy for the routing tables, specifically regarding the two variables that determine the best route: channel capacity at time t and fees charged by nodes. Rusty explains that there are different ways to do routing via a known set of landmarks. Since each node is interested in finding the cheapest route to and from each beacon, it's easy to propagate the best-known route. However, some heuristics will be required since the definition of "cheapest" depends on the amount being transferred.
Updated on: 2023-07-31T18:58:45.939167+00:00