Author: Pierre 2015-09-16 10:27:32
Published on: 2015-09-16T10:27:32+00:00
The Lightning Network is a proposed implementation of payment channels for bitcoin transactions. Pierre, a participant in the network, suggests that having a lot of small nodes may be incompatible with a reliable and low latency network. He suggests instead having a limited number of specialized supernodes. These supernodes would be strongly typed as mainly sending or receiving money to optimize efficiency. However, this could be detrimental to privacy, so delaying payments slightly for an increase in privacy may be worthwhile. Furthermore, setting up channels isn't free, so minimizing the number of channels and hops for a transaction is important. Pierre also suggests that if lightning becomes widely successful, it could change our perception of which funds are more usable. Currently, joining the lightning network can be expensive, and there is a risk of payments being blocked or communication blockages occurring. Despite these concerns, Pierre believes that having a handful of channels set up with well-connected nodes could alleviate some of these issues.
Updated on: 2023-05-23T20:06:37.781293+00:00