Author: Dario Sneidermanis 2017-12-21 01:07:24
Published on: 2017-12-21T01:07:24+00:00
In a post to the Lightning-dev mailing list, Jim Renkel suggested an idea for reducing the number of blockchain transactions used by the Lightning Network (LN) and the fees paid to confirm them in a common use case where a customer frequently purchases from the same merchant over an extended period. Renkel suggests that if the LN were enhanced with a mechanism to deposit and withdraw funding in the channel to and from the blockchain without closing the channel, it could be done with a single blockchain transaction that is essentially the merge of the closing and re-opening blockchain transactions. This would reduce the number of blockchain transactions required by almost 50% in the limit as the number of close/re-open cycles approaches infinity. Renkel provides a detailed analysis of his proposal, including the impact on blockchain transaction fees. He invites comments from the community and offers to work with others to flesh out a detailed specification if consensus can be reached.
Updated on: 2023-05-24T17:48:05.252440+00:00