Published on: 2020-11-17T05:23:55+00:00
In a recent conversation, concerns were raised about the possibility of charging zero fees for initially leased channels. The main issue was enforcing such a policy and ensuring that both parties agree on each other's advertisements. To address this, the protocol may need to be extended to allow nodes to advertise specific channel updates that are only valid if both sides sign off on them. Additionally, Lightning Pool can use a node rating system to protect lease buyers from nodes that increase their fees after selling a lease.Another factor to consider in channel leasing is the effective utilization of the leased capital. When rebalancing away incoming capacity, the channel lessor pays the lessee the forwarding fee and creates incoming capacity on another channel of the lessee. However, providing a feerate assurance could lead to an actual loss. Despite this, rebouncing is beneficial for the network as a whole and should be supported.The writer acknowledges that the long-form documentation on the client/server protocol has not been written yet. However, the current protocol can be found in a set of protobufs listed in the provided link. It is important to note that the protocol is still in the alpha release stage and is not considered stable. Proper upgrade mechanisms can be used to prevent breaking changes in the API.Regarding orchestrator functionality, the writer explains that if all onchain UTXOs were signed with n-of-n, all participants would act as an orchestrator. However, this approach faces scalability, coordination, and availability issues. Having an orchestrator reduces the availability requirements of participants. With the addition of a merkle-tree/MMR/SMT over all chain state committed to in each block, an offline participant would still be able to fully validate all operations that occurred while they were away. This structure could also authenticate lease rate data in the context of CLM/Pool.The author expresses gratitude towards Laolu for their hard work and inquires about the documentation and stability of the client/server intercommunications protocol. The author proposes a new idea for leased channels, suggesting that initially charging zero fees and then setting a nonzero channel feerate once the "should" fee matches the original lease cost could improve risk-sharing and system health. However, enforcing this idea is challenging since channel updates are unilateral and cannot be closed by the lessee if the lessor sets a nonzero feerate ahead of time. This concept aligns with the expected low-risk rate of return and may aid in market discovery.Lightning Labs has introduced Lightning Pool, a system focusing on uni-directional channels. It allows users to buy and sell "channel leases" that package up inbound liquidity for a fixed duration. This builds upon previous ideas for creating a market for dual-funding channels. The white paper provides a detailed understanding of the system's architecture. Live testnet+mainnet markets have been released, offering routing nodes a stable revenue source and enabling those in need of inbound liquidity to bootstrap their new Lightning Service in an automated manner. It is important to note that this is only the first alpha release, and future iterations will include features such as streaming interest payments and side-car channels.
Updated on: 2023-07-31T23:13:24.283002+00:00