Author: Benjamin Mord 2017-11-17 15:25:16
Published on: 2017-11-17T15:25:16+00:00
The conversation is about cryptographic conservatism and routing. The footnotes in Christian Decker's email provide links to articles discussing routing and gossip protocols for Lightning Network, a Bitcoin-compatible micropayment system. The current routing protocol is minimal, but the network is actively working on finding better solutions to route across millions or billions of nodes. Distance vector routing may be one option to consider. Benjamin Mord suggests creating an inventory of unproven mathematical assumptions and/or cryptographic primitives cataloged in terms of cryptocurrency technologies which require them. He also proposes that the ideal end state would be to only assume existence of a preimage-resistant hash function, and to code such that one function could be quickly swapped with another to update entire systems. Regarding off-chain channel rebalancing and fund reallocation based solely on Bitcoin, Conrad and Christian published a similar technique [3]. They address concerns about hubs forming and centralization risk in the Lightning Network, stating that creating such a hub is extremely costly and opens up an opportunity for nodes to open bypasses. Rebalancing is possible, and participants should open channels that support the network as a whole, not just themselves. Ultimately, this should encourage participants to improve the network topology.
Updated on: 2023-05-24T03:11:11.442262+00:00