Author: U.Mutlu 2017-12-11 23:08:17
Published on: 2017-12-11T23:08:17+00:00
A user inquired about the possibility of using Lightning Network (LN) for short-term loans or multi-hop payments. Christian Decker, a developer, responded saying that there is currently no support for short-term loans as all payments on LN are fully backed by Bitcoin. He also mentioned that he doesn't see how multi-hop payments would differ from the ones already done on LN. However, the user went on to propose an idea that could potentially allow for instant payments. This would involve a middleman paying out the amount to the receiver immediately and getting their money back from the original sender the normal way, which takes at least 10 minutes for confirmation. The middlemen would advertise their services on a marketplace, with the highest amount they are willing to overtake and the fees they want. Each transaction would then be processed by Bitcoin, picking the best offer from the order book of the marketplace and swapping the receiver with the middleman. The advantages of this system include the receiver getting the money instantly, anyone being able to play middleman, middlemen earning from the fees, exchanges being established, and more. However, it is unclear if this scenario can be set up using LN.
Updated on: 2023-05-24T03:27:18.751611+00:00