Towards A K-of-N Lightning Network Node

The performance analysis of the current implementation reveals significant inefficiencies, particularly in terms of speed and resource consumption. The system takes approximately 1.2 seconds per transaction on my machine, which is considered slow for expected operations; ideally, transactions should complete in milliseconds. Additionally, each part of the transaction, whether it's acceptance or completion (fail/fulfill), incurs a similar delay, doubling the time for full transaction processing.

Regarding resource usage, the system consumes around 770MB of RAM per participant, which becomes substantial when scaled across multiple cores necessary for handling numerous parallel operations. This high demand for memory and processing power makes the system less economically viable due to the potential reduction in fee earnings for node operators. Given that these nodes are designed to manage extensive amounts of Bitcoin through numerous channels and high rates of transactions, the scalability of this system is questionable.

Security processes like the computation of revocation keys can be initiated earlier in the transaction sequence, which might offer some optimization. However, even with such adjustments, the requirement for all minimum defined parties (k parties) to participate in the final step remains a bottleneck. This scenario underscores the challenge of maintaining robust security while attempting to enhance performance and manage costs in complex systems like the k-of-n Lightning Network nodes.