Highly Available Lightning Channels

Summary:

The Lightning Network is a second layer protocol designed to improve the scalability and speed of Bitcoin transactions. It uses smart contract functionality to create payment channels between parties, allowing for off-chain transactions that can be settled on the main Bitcoin blockchain at a later time. The website lists.linuxfoundation.org features a mailing list called lightning-dev, which is dedicated to the development of Lightning Network technology. Subscribers can participate in discussions about technical specifications, implementation details, and use cases for Lightning Network. The list also serves as a forum for announcements about new releases and updates to Lightning Network software.In a Lightning-dev mailing list, Joost Jager proposed a new bit to be added to the `channel_update` field `channel_flags`, which the sender can use to signal `highly_available`. The proposal is based on the idea that payers on the lightning network will eventually become very strict about node performance. They will require routing nodes to operate flawlessly or else apply a hefty penalty such as completely avoiding the node for an extended period of time - multiple weeks. This will cause routing nodes to manage their liquidity meticulously because every failure potentially has a large impact on future routing revenue. Joost argued that this movement in the direction of strict penalization is important to guarantee competitiveness with centralized payment systems that have the ability to process payments quickly. Matt Corallo responded to Joost's proposal, stating that he does not see why this needs a signal. Instead, he believes that nodes should measure the network and route over paths that it thinks are reliable for what it wants, robustly over an unreliable network. Matt argues that nodes should not expect the lightning network to be built out of high reliability nodes, as this creates strong centralization pressure. To meet a "high availability" threshold, realistically, one would need to be able to Just-In-Time (JIT) 0conf splice-in, driving lightning to actually being a credit network. He further states that lightning today is very reliable and relatively fast, with few retries required, and he does not think anything needs to be changed to fix it.Christian Decker chimed in, stating that reputation systems are great when they work, but they are horrible to get right. He categorized reputation systems into three types: first-hand experience, inferred experience, and hearsay. Ideally, one would only rely on the first two to make decisions, but repeat interactions are too rare, and local knowledge gets out of date the longer one waits. For one to have sufficient knowledge to make good decisions, one needs to repeatedly interact with the same nodes in the network. Since end-users are unlikely to do that, they might instinctively fall back to the hearsay method, either by sharing their local reputation with peers and then somehow combining that with their own view. Decker argues that we need to get away from the patchwork mode of building the protocol and have a much clearer model for what we want to achieve, how much untrustworthy information we want to rely on, and how we protect (and possibly prove security) against manipulation by rational players. The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports the growth of open-source software projects. Its involvement with the Lightning Network reflects the increasing interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies among developers and businesses. By providing a platform for collaboration and innovation, the Linux Foundation aims to accelerate the adoption and integration of Lightning Network technology into the broader Bitcoin ecosystem. Overall, the lightning-dev mailing list is an important resource for those looking to stay up-to-date with developments in Lightning Network technology and to contribute to its ongoing evolution.

Updated on: 2023-06-03T11:50:58.600241+00:00