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. Both individuals have expertise in bitcoin core and rust-lightning codebases, and have conducted landmark research in this area. The sender intends to reach out to Gleb and possibly Elichai Turkel to contribute to the research efforts. They believe that long-term sustainable fixes could potentially lower fees and reduce the number of UTXOs lightning users need to lock continuously. In relation to security issues in the LN ecosystem, the sender has reopened an issue on coordinated security issues handling. While they plan to focus on solving problems at the base layer, they will remain involved with the younger generation of LN developers for a few months. However, the sender clarifies that they do not yet have a strong solution design, code, conceptual draft, or paper ready. They emphasize the importance of considering game theory and changes in node network processing resources carefully within the existing open and responsible Bitcoin process. The sender acknowledges that this endeavor will take reasonable time, similar to the package relay design discussions which started in 2018 and are only now reaching the implementation and review phase. They express their eagerness to hear the thoughts of the Bitcoin and Lightning development protocols community, concluding the email with a quote from Thucydides about resilience in the face of calamity.