Author: ZmnSCPxj 2019-10-25 10:05:48
Published on: 2019-10-25T10:05:48+00:00
The Lightning Network is a system where transactions are not just one-way, but rather form a circle. Transactions on all hops of the circle should be atomic between Lightning hops which is achieved through HTLCs. The state updating mechanism and its properties require special attention to facilitate conflict resolution. The latest state must be revealed and it should be clear that this latest state is more recent than all other states that are revealed. Cryptography can help with this by including sequence numbers in states or by including the hash of the previous state. There is also the possibility to mess up the evidence by forking the channel which can be resolved semantically. Contracts between three or more parties and merging and joining of contracts in state updates are advanced ideas that come with their own set of difficulties.
Updated on: 2023-06-02T21:03:11.820257+00:00