Published on: 2016-05-30T09:01:33+00:00
The idea of a cloud-based payment channel with multiple parties connected is being discussed. However, there are concerns about participants cheating and broadcasting old channel transactions, posing challenges in determining the correct payouts to other participants. One potential solution is to use decreasing nLocktime with each update, making it impossible to broadcast old states. However, this approach would result in limited channel lifetimes and increased on-chain activity or high refund timeouts.To fully understand the proposal, more details are needed on how the system would work and how resigning transactions would be combined with the nLocktime approach. In the Lightning network, hubs require a significant amount of capital, which makes it difficult for new hubs to enter the market and raises the possibility of cartel formation. Multi-party channels could address this issue by allowing a hub to share its capital among multiple customers. A basic multi-party channel would involve all participants signing each state update, ensuring that only the most recent state is broadcasted. However, this system requires signatures from all parties for all state updates, making updates impossible when any party is offline or uncooperative.On the other hand, a flexible multi-party channel would only require signatures from parties who lose out due to a state update. Additionally, until the channel times out, only the hub can broadcast the final state. After that point, any participant can close the channel to prevent one participant from prematurely closing it against the wishes of others. Outputs from the channel would be locked for 24 hours to allow participants to challenge the final state.Fraud claim timeouts could be handled simultaneously, and it should be possible to set up the channel to have a long-lasting existence. Parties could be added or removed without closing the channel, although this would require some on-chain activity unless the withdrawal is managed by moving to another channel.
Updated on: 2023-07-31T19:01:36.152821+00:00