Author: Olaoluwa Osuntokun 2022-07-02 00:26:54
Published on: 2022-07-02T00:26:54+00:00
In an email exchange, Laolu Osuntokun proposed the addition of a signal to detect splicing on the Lightning Network's gossip network. Lisa Neigut expressed confusion as to why such a signal was being proposed, stating that it runs counter to the goal of making lightning's onchain footprint indistinguishable from any other onchain usage. However, Laolu argued that adding a reliable signal would not necessarily add extra bytes to the chain or reveal additional information for public channels. In his model of gossip v2, verifiers don't care if the advertised UTXO is actually a channel or not and aren't watching the chain for spends. With this in mind, splicing on the gossip network wouldn't be an explicit event. Instead, re-organizing by a little corner of the channel graph isn't necessarily tied to making a series of on-chain transactions.Laolu acknowledged that waiting N blocks before closing channels is "good enough" for most cases but suggested the addition of a signal as a belt-and-suspenders approach. Lisa brought up the potential for lost routing fees in the case of a communication failure, but Laolu argued that the severity of such a failure is minimal. They also discussed the appropriate number of blocks to wait before closing channels, with Lisa suggesting 15 or 144 blocks and Laolu referencing a previous mention of ~an hour for gossip to propagate and suggesting 12 blocks as a reasonable first estimate. Finally, they noted that Alex Myer's minisketch project may improve gossip reconciliation efficiency and reduce the need for robust signaling in the future.
Updated on: 2023-06-03T09:11:04.667576+00:00