Published on: 2018-01-12T00:30:21+00:00
In the Lightning Network community, Jonathan Underwood has proposed a feature that would enable users to pay with an open channel. This means that if the recipient of a payment waiting for a specific r_hash receives an open_channel message with push_msat greater than or equal to the value of the request and the temporary_channel_id contains the r_hash, the payment will be set to a WAITING_OPEN status. Once the channel is open, the payment will move to a PAID status. If a routed payment is received with the r_hash while in the WAITING_OPEN state, the payment status will change to PAID.However, Rusty Russell, another member of the LN community, has expressed some concerns regarding Underwood's proposal. Russell suggests that it might be better to simply open a channel and then make a payment instead of using push_msat. He also points out that opening a channel can take up to 10 minutes, but most smartphone apps kill background network processes for apps after around 5 minutes. Additionally, opening a channel can take even longer if there are high depth requirements, low fees, or unlucky miners. In cases where routing fails to pay someone, Russell proposes that a wallet UI should ask the user whether they want to open a channel and send, send on-chain, or give up.Russell believes that mobile wallets can accomplish the necessary polling for this feature. However, he notes that allowing people to "pay" with an open_channel introduces trust into the system, and he doesn't think adjustments should be made based on such a falsifiable signal. Lastly, Russell mentions that if this feature were to be added, it would likely be part of version 1.1 since the specification is currently frozen, except for fixing bugs.On the Lightning Network community forum, a user is curious if this proposed idea has been implemented in other wallets. The idea behind the proposal is to address the issue of open_channel taking a significant amount of time, especially considering the limitations of smartphone apps. By allowing users to signal their intent to pay with an open_channel, it enables payment processors to react accordingly and generate payment requests with shorter expiration times.The user suggests that this feature could be a beneficial addition to BOLT 2, but they are unsure. They express gratitude for the input received from others on this matter.
Updated on: 2023-07-31T19:38:20.706886+00:00