lightning-dev

On solving pinning, replacement cycling and mempool issues for bitcoin second-layers

On solving pinning, replacement cycling and mempool issues for bitcoin second-layers

Original Postby Antoine Riard

Posted on: October 22, 2023 02:27 UTC

Gleb Naumenko and the sender of the email are planning to allocate their research time towards finding a sustainable fix for the Lightning Network.

They aim to address issues such as pinnings, replacement cycling attacks, mempool issues, and force-closure beyond available blockspace. The sender mentions that they have studied these cross-layer issues together since 2019/2020, gaining practical experience in bitcoin core and rust-lightning codebases, and conducting landmark research in this area.

They mention that if Gleb is not too busy with Erlay in core, he would be enthusiastic to contribute research time at his own pace. Additionally, the sender may seek assistance from Elichai Turkel to verify the mathematics of the proposed sustainable lightning fixes and risk models. They emphasize that these commitments rely on the interest of the bitcoin community.

The sender highlights that implementing long-term sustainable fixes could potentially lower the fee-bumping reserve value and reduce the number of locked UTXOs for lightning users. They reopened an issue on coordinated security issues handling in the LN ecosystem and provide a link to it.

While the sender plans to focus on solving the above-mentioned problems at the base-layer, they express their intention to remain involved in the Lightning Network development for a few months to facilitate the transition with younger LN developers. They clarify that they do not have any concrete solutions or drafts ready yet, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of game theory, node network processing resources, and adherence to the open and responsible Bitcoin process.

Overall, the sender acknowledges that this endeavor will take time and references the ongoing package relay design discussions that started in 2018 and are now progressing to the hard implementation and review phase. They invite thoughts and input from the Bitcoin and Lightning development protocols community. The email concludes with a quote by Thucydides: "They who face calamity without wincing, and who offer the most energetic resistance, these, be they States or individuals, are the truest heroes."