«At least two individuals who have been running the Lightning Network on the Bitcoin mainnet have apparently lost funds due to bugs when they tried to
close payment channels.»
As proposed, all Lightning - style networks need to use on - blockchain transactions (and the accompanying fees) to set up and
close payment channels.
At least two individuals who have been running the Lightning Network on the Bitcoin mainnet have apparently lost funds due to bugs when they tried to
close payment channels.
Mass channel closures during periods of low on - chain contention probably won't be a big deal because nodes can simply re-establish
a closed payment channel with the same on - chain transaction that closes it.
In short: Opening and
closing a payment channel on the LN requires an on - chain transaction, but all transactions in the middle are confirmed instantly, with almost no fee, and with a very high degree of privacy.
Not exact matches
Transaction are only saved onto the blockchain when a
payment channel is
closed, so only the one total resultant
payment is visible on - chain.
It is certainly not a surprise to hear experts say that mobile
payments are at least a few years away from becoming anything
close to the norm among
payment channels.
, an application that would allow users to convert their
payment channel balances to bitcoin and back without
closing the
channels themselves.
Eclair is also working on Lightning Conductor, an application that would allow users to convert their
payment channel balances to bitcoin and back without
closing the
channels themselves.
You could still route
payments for free or negative fees, but you'd likely want to
close the
channels and re-establish them in order to continue collecting fees.
As mentioned earlier, fees collected by Lightning nodes that route
payments will degrade the amount of value available to be routed through the
channel until it is exhausted and must be
closed.
What if you need to make an on - chain
payment, but all of your coins are locked in the Lightning Network and you don't want to
close your
channels?
LN opens «
payment channels» between parties who want to transact in private; when both actors decide to «
close» the
payment channel, their data would be recorded on - chain (instead of each individual transaction).
Plooy
closed his talk by discussing a few of the remaining issues with
payment channel networks, such as unresolved security holes and economic modeling that could hinder development over the near term.
The implementation developed by Lightning Labs, but also BitFury and others, can open and
close channels with counterparties to transact, route
payments over the network, forward transactions from other users and more.
Whenever
channels close, the advantages offered by bi-directional
payments channels are clear — on steroids.
This means that
payment channels can now be
closed without a predetermined date, which would be set when the
channel is initially opened.
Moreno Sanchez's work, conducted with four other Purdue researchers, presented two implementations of
payment channels based on a new type of smart contract, while Miers» was an iteration of work first introduced in 2016, now more relevant given that the Lightning Network is
closer to launch.
The second
payment channels can then be used like normal
payment channels (e.g. for routable
payments Lightning Network) except that when it comes time to
close them.
Such
payment channels have a predetermined limited life, it is indeed insecure for Bob to keep using the
channel after the time - lock expires, requiring the
closing of the
channel before that date.
The latest version of the Lightning Network is able to open and
close channels with peers, handle all cooperative and non-cooperative
channel states, maintain an authenticated and validated
channel graph, passively forward incoming
payments, send outgoing TOR - encrypted
payments and so on.
When a
channel factory is
closed, instead of broadcasting its balance to the Bitcoin (or Litecoin) blockchain, there is the option to open «child»
payment channels between the members of the original
channel without broadcasting anything to the blockchain.
Once the 2 users are done shifting funds between them, to fortify the final balance, the
payment channel is
closed using the
closing transaction which is committed to the blockchain.
The practice of opening and
closing channels in order to accept
payments appears to already be causing confusion, with Reddit accounts seeking to eradicate common misconceptions.
Payment Channels can be opened and
closed at will, with transactions settling onto the bitcoin blockchain
uture Lightning releases may not be compatible with the current mainnet, meaning
payment channels started today will need to be
closed in the event of a new release.
One the one end, you have users who are reporting that they have lost funds as well as
payment channels that have not
closed properly.