Author: Prayank 2022-02-14 17:59:37
Published on: 2022-02-14T17:59:37+00:00
The security of Lightning Network and other Layer 2 projects can be impacted by policy rules, unlike the base blockchain/network. However, it is not advisable to abandon these designs without a superior security model. A new RBF policy in Core may not immediately improve the security of projects that rely on multiple RBF policies but can build a strong foundation in the long term. The option to set defaults that are widely used exists due to the dominance of Bitcoin Core. Users, including miners, can run different policy rules without making them effective consensus rules.The recent improvements suggested for RBF policy are focused on Lightning Network security. Still, contributors to other Layer 2 projects can also flag and discuss security considerations that are not specific to Lightning. Bitcoin Knots policy is fully configurable, even in the GUI, and its maintainers and contributors can determine what default policy rules they want to implement. However, discussions on the Bitcoin Core Dev IRC channel highlighted concerns about the mempool as an order book for bidding on block space due to potential differences in relay policies used by nodes. Using different RBF policies can also impact the security of Lightning Network and other layer 2 projects that rely on the default RBF policy in Bitcoin Core. An attacker with 10% hash power could use a different RBF policy with some nodes and affect the security of different projects. CVEs have been reported wherein undocumented implementation of RBF policy could affect the security of Lightning Network. This raises questions regarding the vulnerability of Lightning Network and other layer 2 projects to the use of multiple RBF policies, changes in default RBF policy used by Core resulting in multiple versions using different policies, and whether recent improvements suggested for RBF policy only focus on Lightning Network and its security. Research into Lightning security is still nascent, and experiments on signet networks with auto-generated transactions and/or reduced block sizes can help identify more issues associated with multiple RBF policies. Bitcoin Knots policy is fully configurable, allowing users to choose whatever policy they want.
Updated on: 2023-06-03T07:30:54.209475+00:00