Published on: 2018-01-03T13:09:34+00:00
In a recent email conversation, the possibility of using Lightning Network to receive Bitcoin payments is being discussed. Pierre believes that it should work as long as both ends support channel multiplexing, which implementations like lnd or eclair do. However, he expresses concerns about being the accepting node and receiving too many channel requests that never confirm. Pierre also suggests that opening a channel should not necessarily be considered a time-sensitive operation, unless there are exceptional cases. He doesn't believe it is an urgent matter in general.The author of the email is interested in exploring the use of replaceable funding transactions (replace-by-fee) in BOLT v1.0 to address the issue of slow transaction confirmation on the blockchain level. According to the BOLT spec, if a non-funding node does not see the funding transaction after a reasonable timeout, it should forget the channel. The author believes that it is possible to do RBF funding transactions as long as the counterparty allows multiple channels per peer.The suggested approach includes various steps such as sending open_channel for channel #1, receiving accept_channel for channel #1, creating an RBF-able funding transaction with a low fee rate, sending funding_created for channel #1, receiving funding_signed for channel #1, waiting for confirmation on the blockchain, increasing the fee rate, sending open_channel for channel #2 to the same party, receiving accept_channel for channel #2, creating a replacement funding transaction with a high fee rate, sending funding_created for channel #2, receiving funding_signed for channel #2, waiting for confirmation on the blockchain, sending funding_locked for channel #2, receiving funding_locked for channel #2, and letting the counterparty forget channel #1.However, the author mentions that c-lightning restricts channels, raising the question of whether this approach is possible within the current BOLT spec. Additionally, the author hopes that a future version of the BOLT spec will include a cancel_channel message to address concerns about receiving too many channel requests that never confirm.Overall, frustration surrounding blockchain transaction fees is highlighted, particularly regarding the lack of ways to control fees after a transaction has been broadcasted.
Updated on: 2023-07-31T19:35:57.205400+00:00