World Crypto Global Official Site | the lightning network

Author: Eduardo Próspero

Light Speed: Kraken, Another Giant Exchange Integrates The Lightning Network

This is huge! Kraken now supports Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals. The suddenly popular second Layer protocol keeps growing and gaining importance. “Finally, traders have an instant and inexpensive way to move bitcoin on and off the platform,” Kraken said in their official announcement. The Lightning Network is much more than that, though. What will happen once Kraken’s extensive clientele tries out Lightning transactions? Will the phenomenal experience change the way they see bitcoin? The second layer solution can perform millions of operations per second and all transactions cost pennies and offer final settlement. In using it, there are also privacy gains. The huge innovation, though, is the cash-like experience. The Kraken integration comes with a Lightning node of their own. To implement it, the company used LND by Lightning Labs. The reason is that “they have the largest user base and we have a lot of people on the network that have lots of experience with LND. So it has proven to be easy to use and very reliable as well.” That’s according to Kraken’s bitcoin product manager, Pierre Rochard, who also said to Bitcoin Magazine: “Adoption is going to come from people who have fiat in their bank account, and they need to get it into Bitcoin. Kraken is providing an excellent venue for them to do that, and then they can top up their mobile Lightning wallet and use it as a medium of exchange. That’s clearly the next step in terms of Bitcoin’s evolution.” Designed with this and the cash-like experience in mind, Kraken limits Lightning deposits and withdrawals to 0.1 BTC. BTC price chart for 04/02/2022 on Binance | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com Kraken Announced Lightning Network Integration In 2020 Even though this looks like it magically happened, the integration had been in the works for a while. In 2020, Kraken stated its intentions: “In 2021, we are committed to hiring a team to focus specifically on the Lightning Network, as part of our continuing effort to deliver the best possible experience for traders and investors. We expect to allow clients to withdraw and deposit Bitcoin on Lightning in the first half of 2021, which will allow clients to move their Bitcoin instantly and with the lowest fees.” It took a while, but it’s finally here. Market-wise, will this move the needle in favor of bitcoin? Will the world even notice? According to this list, Kraken became the 23rd exchange to support the Lightning Network. Among the giant ones already on board are Bitfinex, OKEx, OKcoin, BitMex, and Bitstamp. Among the up-and-coming ones, BullBitcoin, Buda, CoinCorner, Kollider, and Boltz. This also means, that you're able to instantly move the lightning payment you received to @krakenfx to exchange it for fiat, basically reducing the currency exchange risk to zero.This completely changes the dynamic for fiat brick and mortar stores.https://t.co/bpNzKC7ZDL — zero fee routing ? (@zerofeerouting) March 31, 2022 And, since we’re on lists, in their announcement Kraken provided Lightning wallet recommendations: “For example, BTCPay Server enables Lightning payments for merchants, greatly improving the bitcoin checkout flow. For consumers, Breez, Phoenix and Muun bring Lightning to mobile with a modern user experience.” As to the importance of the move for markets and business, a pseudonymous Lightning node operator that goes by “zero fee routing” puts everything in perspective. “This also means, that you’re able to instantly move the lightning payment you received to Kraken to exchange it for fiat, basically reducing the currency exchange risk to zero. This completely changes the dynamic for fiat brick and mortar stores.” Attacking The ESG FUD Head On The increase in Lightning Network adoption also brings a great opportunity with it. The community could clean up the disgusting ESG-based narrative enemies of bitcoin have been planting in mainstream media. Regarding this, in the already quoted interview Kraken’s Pierre Rochard said: “With Lightning, you can send a payment off-chain that is much more energy efficient, not only because you’re not adding the miner fees, and thus the amount of electricity consumption by miners, but also because that payment only has to be stored and shared by the two parties in that channel.” Do Greenpeace and Ripple not know that most bitcoin transactions are going to be off-chain in a few years? Do they not know that the Lightning Network alone will take bitcoin out of the conversation its enemies have been carefully manufacturing? Kraken certainly knows. And took action. Speaking about Kraken, its CEO Jess Powell has been present on the news lately. He recommended buying bitcoin below $40K. During the Canadian crisis, he hinted that bitcoiners should take their funds out of centralized exchanges. And he refused to voluntarily ban Russian users, providing a convincing rationale to justify Kraken’s actions. And now, his company integrated the Lightning Network. Featured Image by Ferhat Deniz Fors on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView

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Lightning Speed 004: What’s The Lightning Development Initiative?

Author: Eduardo Próspero

United Kingdom

Source: NewsBTC

Jan 14, 2022 10:20

Lightning Speed 004: What’s The Lightning Development Initiative?

There’s no denying that 2021 was the Lightning Network’s year. What does the future hold, though? If the objective is to onboard the next billion people, the network needs work and fine-tuning. To grab the bull by the horns, The Human Rights Foundation and Strike set up three 1 BTC bounties. The bounties will go to the first person or team to develop an anonymous Lightning tip jar, a tokenless way to peg BTC to dollars, or a privacy-focused wallet that supports some kind of Chaumian e-cash feature. In a Twitter Spaces conversation about the program, they named it The Lightning Development Initiative. A catchy name that we’ll use from now on to refer to all of this. This fourth edition of Lightning Speed is all about the future. Let’s explore the three ideas and the new information that we have about each of them. The Lightning Development Initiative In Twitter Spaces Among the speakers were Strike’s Jack Mallers, The Human Rights Foundation’s Alex Gladstein, Bitcoin Magazine’s Christian Keroles AKA CK Snarks, and Tales From The Crypt’s Matt Odell. It took place on December 29th and Bitcoin Magazine hosted it. A Twitter user named Gigi summarized it for us. ?? A thread summarizing the Lightning Développement Initiative Space ?? 3 amazingly interesting topic related to the bounties were discussed. I'm so bullish on Lightning? it hurts. Very grateful to have these people on our side ???? let's look at my notes ?? pic.twitter.com/PRs9cohPaN — Gigi ????? (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021 Bounty #1: An Anonymous Tip Jar In our sister site Bitcoinist’s report, they described the challenge as follows: “Can you create a Lightning tip jar that doesn’t reveal any information about the parties involved? That’s the first task. How to receive completely anonymous donations. According to Bitcoin Mag, the “goal is to enable anyone to use free and open-source software (FOSS) to print a QR code that can be used for receiving Lightning payments privately. Importantly, “The QR code should not reveal the public key or IP address of the user.” In the Lightning Development Initiative’s report, we learned that this has to do with the two competing protocols, Bolt12 and lnurl. Jack Mallers “pointed out the absolute need for interoperability on the Lightning Network and that even though lnurl might not be “optimal” right now, the market will eventually decide what open standard they prefer to use. He thinks that currently UX is a major focus for the Lightning community and we should make peace with the fact that there will be competition between solutions.” Rockstar pointed out that this debate around lnurl vs bolt12 will have huge implications for the future but that he's glad that there's now an active discussion on the matter. Jack added that contrary to the Bitcoin main chain, we can somewhat afford to fuck up on LN.. — Gigi ????? (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021 Mallers put forth another interesting idea, “contrary to the Bitcoin main chain, we can somewhat afford to f**k up on the Lightning Network. As long as the Bitcoin monetary policy is not threatened then we can freely fiddle on top of the protocol via Lightning.” BTC price chart for 01/14/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com Bounty #2: Stablecoin On Lightning Without A Token Bitcoinist described this one as: “The second challenge seems to be even more difficult, at least on a conceptual level. The HRF and Strike want a wallet that enables “anyone to “peg” an amount of bitcoin to U.S. dollars without needing an exchange or another token.” That’s right, without a centralized entity. And relying only on sats and bitcoin.” Gigi summarizes why the world needs this: “The goal is to allow people to access dollars without a single point of failure. Further down the line, as Bitcoin becomes less volatile, these people can use btc, but until then there’s massive demand for holding value in dollars. The tether market cap is proof of this.” It serve an important humanitarian use case. We need to create the foundation for this new financial system.@Chris_Stewart_5 >> maybe it can be done with DLC's? Not using a token but rather something representing price exposure (think Eurodollar system). (oracles?) The END. — Gigi ????? (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021 Bounty #3: A Chaumian E-Cash Feature First of all, Investopedia defines Chaumian e-cash as: “eCash was a digital-based system that facilitated the transfer of funds anonymously. A pioneer in cryptocurrency, its goal was to secure the privacy of individuals that use the Internet for micropayments. eCash was created by Dr. David Chaum under his company, DigiCash, in 1990.“ So, once again, anonymity is the priority. As Alex Gladstein put it when announcing the bounties, they’re “for the first open-source, non-custodial, non-KYC Lightning wallets to ship features requested by dissidents worldwide.” Also, take into consideration the words of security expert Brian Trollz, “Bitcoin without privacy is nothing but a surveillance system.” Bitcoin without privacy is nothing but a surveillance system. — Shino (@brian_trollz) January 13, 2022 What does Gigi have for us on this topic? “We need a sort of Chaumian e-cash, extremely easy to use for the Plebs and accessible. Maybe the solution is a federated one, making it harder to regulate.” He then quotes Jack Mallers again, “There’s going to be a singular standard for the internet of money (Bitcoin). Many will compete on top of BTC so we need “interoperability to the standard.” Matt: We need to make it very easy to use because experience shows us that if it's somewhat challenging (coinjoins etcc) people won't bother to protect their privacy (goddam idiot normies ??) — Gigi ????? (@GuerillaV2) December 29, 2021 Conclusion: The Future Is Bright Developers, teams, companies, anyone can earn the Lighting Development Initiative’s bounties. The non-profit OpenSats will serve as the judge. They are all open for the whole year. If by the end of 2022 no one has claimed them, the money will go to the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund on January 1st. Which is fair. Especially considering they just gave 425 million Sats to these worthy organizations and individuals. For more information and details read Bitcoinist’s original report. Featured Image by Micah Tindell on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView

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Lightning Speed: Taproot And The Lightning Network, A Match Made In Heaven

Author: Eduardo Próspero

United Kingdom

Source: NewsBTC

Jan 04, 2022 08:30

Lightning Speed: Taproot And The Lightning Network, A Match Made In Heaven

A little more than two months ago, Taproot went live. What does the biggest update to the Bitcoin network in years bring to the table? How can it help the increasingly popular Lightning Network? That’s exactly what the article we’re about to summarize is about. It starts by informing us that “Bitcoin even has a scripting language,” and that it’s called Script. Related Reading | Number Of Bitcoin Lightning Network Nodes Jumps 23% In Three Months But before we get into that, what is Taproot? “Taproot is a combination of three Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) that enhance this scripting infrastructure: BIP340 – Schnorr, BIP341- Taproot and BIP342 – Tapscript. The key of Taproot that unlocks all the others is the introduction of Schnorr Signatures, which allow for key and signature aggregation. This means that multiple parties are able combine their keys to a single public key, thereby allowing them to sign a single message.” It’s important to know that Taproot won’t allow “fully expressive” or “Turing complete” contracts like in Ethereum and all its related chains. Nor are those kinds of contracts a priority for the Bitcoin network, as our sister site Bitcoinist points out. Also, to curb our expectations, let’s read what Tales From The Crypt podcast’s host Marty Bent warned us about in his newsletter: “It is important to understand that these benefits aren’t going to be immediate. They are going to come to market slowly over time as the software gets implemented into wallets and other services. Many are expecting Taproot to get activated over the weekend and all its potential benefits to be realized immediately. This is simply not the case and it is important that this fact is understood.” Ok, let’s get into the meat and potatoes. How Does Taproot Help The Lightning Network? First of all, every Lightning channel consists of “2 of 2 multisigs”. So, a first benefit of being “able combine their keys to a single public key” is that “we have lighter transactions and therefore cheaper channel openings”. Not only that but “signature aggregation also offers enhanced privacy since its contents are indistinguishable from a single-signature transaction.” To clear up how does this benefit privacy, let’s quote the Binance Academy: “Spending Bitcoin using Taproot could make a transaction in a Lightning Network channel, a peer-to-peer transaction, or a sophisticated smart contract become indistinguishable. Anyone monitoring one of these transactions would see nothing but a peer-to-peer transaction. It’s worth noting, though, that this doesn’t change the fact that the wallets of the initial sender and final recipient will be exposed.” However, this is not quite true… yet. The Voltage article clarifies, “Does this mean that lightning channels are now unidentifiable on the blockchain? Well, the answer is ‘yes’ for private channels and ‘not quite yet’ for public channels.” BTC price chart for 01/04/2021 on Gemini | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com Private And Public Lightning Network Channels What’s the problem? Well, the network doesn’t announce the creation of private channels. The public ones, on the other hand: “Unfortunately, even if we do hide the channel openings on the blockchain, the current specification of the lightning protocol requires nodes to broadcast the details of the funding transactions when announcing their channels. This might seem counterintuitive at first, but it’s also an elegant way to prevent nodes spamming the network with fake channels.” Related Reading | How Big Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network? The Answer Will Surprise You Also, let’s take into account that surveillance firm Chainalysis already announced a Lightning Network-related service. We should assume there are “sybil nodes surveilling the network”. And that “With enough hostile nodes” a bad actor could paint “a fairly detailed picture of the flow of funds”. Well, Taproot has an elegant solution for that: “Taproot’s introduction of Schnorr signatures paves the way for a type of smart contract called Point Time Locked Contracts (PTLCs). PTLCs operate in the same manner as HTLCs by allowing payments to be identified by nodes, but PTLCs come with a handy feature of being able to randomize its identifier with each hop thereby making it impossible for nodes to correlate the traffic of sending and receiving nodes.” Understand that “Taproot is a door that opens many other doors”. It’s a new toolkit with which developers all over the world will create new features and improvements. The info this article contains is just the beginning, the low-hanging fruit that we can see from our advantage point. Remember what Marty Bent said, “these benefits aren’t going to be immediate.” The Taproot-enabled stage of Bitcoin is just starting. Featured Image by Cooper Baumgartner on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView

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