lightning-dev

SegWit and LN

SegWit and LN

Original Postby Praveen Baratam

Posted on: January 2, 2018 15:35 UTC

The sender of the email is asking about the most mature Lightning implementation to set up a lightning node and start experimenting with it.

They are also looking for a protocol diagram of how lightning works, as they have only seen higher level diagrams that do not touch the exact flow of events and leave many doubts. They request a detailed flowchart/diagram if one does not exist already. Additionally, they ask about the current limitations/known-gaps in the Lightning network protocol and when its guarantees can fail.In response to a previous email thread, Johan Torås Halseth explains that before you can safely broadcast the funding transaction, the two parties involved in a channel must have signed a commitment transaction spending the output from the funding transaction. Without segwit, the funding transaction can be malleated, leaving the commitment transaction invalid, and funds locked up if one of the parties stops cooperating.Praveen Baratam questions the necessity of SegWit for LN and wonders if waiting for the funding transaction to be confirmed would suffice to safely create and update unconfirmed commitment transactions. Hafeez Bana replies to Praveen Baratam stating that SegWit is required to fix transaction malleability.Dr. Praveen Baratam concludes the email thread by signing off and providing their about.me link.