Author: ZmnSCPxj 2019-12-29 11:14:58
Published on: 2019-12-29T11:14:58+00:00
The importance of decentralization in the blockchain layer is to prevent transactions from being labeled "illegal" and disallowed, and to preserve monetary policy. Similarly, in the Lightning layer, decentralization should also be considered based on the terminal value it supports. The original Peter Todd hub-and-spoke model allows a single server (hub) to know exactly who pays and is paid for all transactions, which erodes privacy. By allowing multiple hubs, there is more privacy, but unpublished channels connecting "hubs" to "spokes" allow cooperation to properly identify every sender and receiver of every payment that goes through the cooperating parties. To increase privacy, the separation of "hub" and "spoke" must be destroyed, allowing all nodes to be equal peers. While some nodes will have more liquidity available to them inherently, the point is to reduce inequality to promote privacy preservation. Encouraging people to increase the number of channels they have to the network and discouraging people from using completely unpublished channels can help achieve this goal. However, the goal may still be too difficult to achieve.
Updated on: 2023-06-02T22:36:18.047460+00:00