{"id":24639,"date":"2016-10-18T18:16:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T18:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe7070092697"},"modified":"2016-10-18T18:16:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T18:16:06","slug":"after-scaling-bitcoin-a-lightning-winter-release-is-now-within-reach-1476814566","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/technical\/after-scaling-bitcoin-a-lightning-winter-release-is-now-within-reach-1476814566","title":{"rendered":"After Scaling Bitcoin, a Lightning Winter Release Is Now Within Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As last week\u2019s Scaling Bitcoin<\/a> workshops came to an end and its attendees returned home, the main task for 12 of Bitcoin\u2019s prominent lightning network developers was really just starting. Last Monday and Tuesday, representatives from ACINQ<\/a>, Amiko Pay<\/a>, BitFury<\/a>, Blockstream<\/a>, Lightning Labs<\/a> and Purse<\/a> gathered on the third story of a working space in the center of Milan. Sitting around a table filled with humming laptops and emptied out pizza boxes, the world\u2019s first \u201clightning network summit\u201d took place.<\/p>\n

The specific task at hand was to establish interoperability between the different implementations of what is perhaps the most highly anticipated technology to be rolled out on the Bitcoin blockchain in the near future.<\/p>\n

The Lightning Network<\/strong><\/p>\n

The<\/a>lightning<\/a>network<\/a> was first proposed<\/a> by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus \u201cTadge\u201d Dryja well over a year ago. Utilizing Bitcoin\u2019s basic programmable features \u2014 like multisig and time-locks \u2014 users can establish networked payment channels on top of Bitcoin, creating in effect an off-blockchain transaction layer leveraging Bitcoin\u2019s security. This should allow for a near-infinite amount of trustless, instant and low-cost transactions with little added burden on the Bitcoin network and its users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise of this work is exceptional,\u201d long-time Linux kernel developer Paul \u201cRusty\u201d Russell<\/a> wrote in a 2015 blog entry<\/a>, after examining Poon and Dryja\u2019s lightning network white paper.<\/p>\n

It was this same Rusty Russell \u2014 now employed by Blockstream \u2014 that led important parts of the discussion in Milan. With his marker scribbling out proposed design specifications on a broad white sheet, the goal was to find common ground among the different teams. If all their implementations can connect and communicate with all the other implementations, utility of the lightning network will increase drastically.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike Bitcoin, where safety is having a gold standard implementation to minimize consensus surprises, lightning is strongest if we have multiple, independent implementations,\u201d Russell explained to Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen a great deal of progress by the different groups experimenting and discovering problems and solutions. This is research and development in true open source style. We’re now at the point where we’ve explored the landscape enough to make some decisions we feel will last. It\u2019s the perfect time to come together and combine our powers into a single spec that we can all aim for.\u201d<\/p>\n

High Stakes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ever since the idea for the lightning network was first proposed, the stakes have increased significantly. Whereas Poon and Dryja mostly hoped to realize instant confirmations and affordable micro-transactions, over the last year the payment layer was hurled into the midst of a raging scaling debate. As a result, the lightning network is now often considered a centerpiece of Bitcoin Core\u2019s scalability road map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the proposal has been receiving increased scrutiny as well. Over the past months in particular, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of proposed routing solutions, potential Denial of Service (DoS) vectors and other failure modes, as well as usability of a system that requires users to lock up some of their funds.<\/p>\n

To help overcome these kinds of challenges, non-lightning specific companies like the full-service Blockchain technology company, BitFury, and wallet provider and block explorer, Blockchain.info, have been investing resources to ensure the realization of the technology as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with many new technologies, there may be challenges in practice that we have not yet experienced in testing,\u201d a representative from BitFury told Bitcoin Magazine,<\/em> regarding potential difficulties ahead. \u201cBut we believe we are completely prepared for the implementation of the lightning network and are working tirelessly with our partners to ensure implementation goes smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scaling Bitcoin<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lightning network had already claimed center stage in the days prior to the summit at the Scaling Bitcoin conference itself. Three presentations on Saturday focused exclusively on the proposed scaling layer, while a workshop on lightning network routing continued later that afternoon.<\/p>\n

At Scaling Bitcoin, Pavel Prikhodko, a developer with BitFury who has been researching routing solutions, presented<\/a> what is generally considered to be the most advanced transaction routing solution so far: Flare. Initial tests<\/a> of Flare were published by ACINQ a week earlier, with both ACINQ and BitFury professing to be happy with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlare specifies how lightning network users may find routes to forward their payments through the network in a secure and decentralized manner,\u201d said BitFury. \u201cFlare is generally agreed upon in that it is a working solution for payment routing, and we are encouraged to see outside testing of the algorithm. We have found very favorable results in our internal tests, and are now working with the community to finalize the algorithm and to prepare it for medium-scale implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightning Labs’ Olaoluwa \u201cLaolu\u201d Osuntokun, in a different presentation<\/a>, explained how the lightning network can include the Sphinx<\/a> algorithm for Tor-style onion-routing. With Sphinx, each peer on the network knows from which other peer it \u201creceived\u201d a transaction, and to which peer that transaction must be \u201cforwarded.\u201d But peers don\u2019t know if they\u2019re the first step in the transaction chain, the last, or somewhere in between. They have no way of telling where a transaction originated or where it will end up. This would be a big boon for privacy, and is compatible with Flare as well as other routing solutions.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Dryja proposed<\/a> a solution to outsource important security measures. In the original lightning design, participants in lightning payment channels needed to monitor Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain to check if a counterparty was trying to cheat them. With Dryja\u2019s proposal, this task can be outsourced to a multitude of different peers. If even one of these peers notices the cheater \u2014 perhaps in exchange for a small fee \u2014 all funds are secured, and the cheater penalized. Furthermore, all this can be done while retaining full privacy, as the outsource service only gets to see an encrypted package.<\/p>\n

Summit Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

After two days of brainstorming, designing, discussion and some \u201chorse trading,\u201d as Russell put it, all teams managed to converge on a shared design. Over the next weeks, they will all plan to dig into their code to implement the Milan specification.<\/p>\n

Emerging from Tuesday evening with a shared sense of optimism, the developers now believe there will be trustless lightning transactions on Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain sooner than many expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the meeting and over the past months, Rusty and Christian Decker have been instrumental in contributing great work into low-level protocol design and specifications; without them, lightning would not be the same,\u201d said Joseph Poon \u2014 who now works with Lightning Labs \u2014 of the participating developers. \u201cLaolu and Tadge are doing critical fundamental work on the crypto design, and BitFury has been doing long-term thinking about payment routing. But really, there are too many people involved to mention. This is a growing team effort across many sectors of the Bitcoin ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell, too, said that he was impressed by the commitment of all the different teams as they came together to work on a shared specification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a \u2026 pervasive feeling of a group of people trying to push their brains for two days to reach a common goal. It’s pretty intense. Exhausting, but there was so little bullshit,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, until Christian started playing Rebecca Black videos for some reason. That kind of ended the second day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real-world Use<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there are still some open questions \u2014 especially regarding fee structures, countering DoS attacks, network topology and end-user experience \u2014 the teams expect early versions of the lightning network to be bootstrapped on top of the Bitcoin blockchain within months.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fully-functional lightning implementation without custodial trust would require a malleability fix \u2014 Segregated Witness \u2014 activated on main-net,\u201d Poon explained. \u201cAs soon as that\u2019s merged in, you should see users transacting on lightning.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the BitFury representative, “The BitFury Group is actively working on a lightning network wallet with a graphical user interface for desktop and mobile platforms, so users will be able to send lightning transactions to each other soon after the Bitcoin Blockchain is ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

From then on, real-world use of the technology can further inform developers to continue and improve the system. Since it\u2019s still hard to predict how the lightning network will be used exactly, or by whom, the developers in Milan agreed that some of the potential problems are best solved as they occur.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>, Amiko Pay<\/a>\u2019s Corn\u00e9 Plooy explained that, as a second-layer solution, the lightning network is expected to be relatively flexible and future adjustments should be easy to implement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology-wise, lightning has it easier than Bitcoin,\u201d Plooy said. \u201cBitcoin has this one-and-only blockchain, with its consensus rules that everybody has to agree on. But with lightning, the concept choices we made are probably \u2014 hopefully \u2014 not set in stone forever. We made an effort to not paint ourselves into a corner, and I think we are still in a flexible position, able to incorporate future developments as they occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

An account of the post-Scaling Bitcoin meet-up by its participants can be found on their Medium post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly attributed the comments from BitFury to Pavel Prikhodko rather than to a BitFury spokesperson. This post has been edited to amend the error.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As last week\u2019s Scaling Bitcoin workshops came to an end and its attendees returned home, the main task for 12 of Bitcoin\u2019s prominent lightning network developers was really just starting. Last Monday and Tuesday, representatives from ACINQ, Amiko Pay, BitFury, Blockstream, Lightning Labs and Purse gathered on the third story of a working space in the center of Milan. Sitting around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2509,"featured_media":24640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2539,245,3546],"class_list":{"0":"post-24639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technical","8":"tag-bitfury","9":"tag-developers","10":"tag-solutions"},"author_data":{"id":2509,"name":"Aaron van Wirdum","nicename":"aaron-van-wirdum","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/aaron-van-wirdum-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/after-scaling-bitcoin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}