Lightning This Week | 613,756
LND v0.9 Released, BitMEX Private LN Capacity Research, new Polar v0.2, and ZEBEDEE Workshop in Advancing Bitcoin 2020
Hello fellow Lightning enthusiasts, we meet again. Lots of cool releases this week, as well as some interesting research pieces on the size of the Lightning Network. If you’re in London in the coming week of February 6–7, don’t miss on Advancing Bitcoin Conferece where ZEBEDEE will be giving a workshop.
LND v0.9.0 RC-3 Released
The pre-release / release candidate 3 for v0.9.0 version of the LND node implementation has been posted and it contains several new features, optimizations, new protocol-level features surfaced on the RPC layer, cross-implementation protocol compatibility fixes, and ton of bug fixes. Experienced users are encouraged to help test the software and report any issues. Since majority of the big features in the v0.9 release have already been discussed at length in other LTW posts I figured I’d just round them up here:
- Macaroon Bakery
We discussed this on LTW 601,934, and it’s a new feature that allows a node operator to create (bake) custom authentication macaroons, specifying granular access and capabilities. - Multi-Part Payments (MPP)
We discussed MPP in more detail in LTW 607,974 and LTW 612,388. MPP is the first step in the development towards true Atomic Multipath Payments. LND v0.9 now has support to receive MPP payments by default, and new payments from v0.9.0 to v0.9.0 nodes will make use of a Single Shot Payment (essentially an MPP with one single part/HTLC). - KeySend Payment Type
We touch on KeySend in last week’s LTW 612,388. Whereas in Lightning you need to create an invoice that gets paid, KeySend allows a node to ‘push funds’ towards another node just by using their pubkey as a destination. - Circular Payments
We went over Circular Payments in LND on LTW 605,954. Circular payments are essentially a way for a node to pay itself, going through one channel and returning on another. This is a great addition to channel-rebalancing mechanics as you can self-rebalance. - MilliSatoshi Support
The support for msats in LND has been mentioned in LTW 603,944, LTW 605,954 and LTW 608,974. From the v0.8 to v0.9 versions the LND team went about refactoring and adding support for msats on all of the major APIs. - Upfront Shutdown Option
Upfront Shutdown is discussed in LTW 612,388. It’s essentially a new set of properties that allows node operators to set addresses or scripts to spend channel closings to. It can be used during channel creation or during channel closing. - AMP DB Migrations
v0.9.0 will require a single DB migration to allow for more flexibility on invoices and to easily add more information to them — which will be especially useful as we finalize our support for AMP within the daemon.
There are more updates and changes to be noted, so head on over to the GitHub Releases to check out all the details:
Polar v0.2.0 Released
The latest release v0.2.0 of Polar has been posted. There are a lot of updates and new features (click here for full CHANGELOG), but the ones worth mentioning include:
- Updated Bitcoin Core to v0.19.0.1 (latest stable)
- Updated LND to v0.8.2 (latest stable)
- Add support for C-Lightning v0.8.0 (latest stable)
- New dark theme support
- Multiple language support (10 languages → want to help?)
If you’re developing Lightning Network applications I highly advise using Polar to emulate full-blown networks in your machine. If you’d like to learn more about Polar and its creator Jamal James, I’d recommend listening to his interview in the Tales from the Crypt podcast with Marty Bent.
Schnorr + Taproot + TapScript BIPs
After a successful 7-week Taproot Review project that saw developers from all over the world taking the time to review and suggest fixes to potential changes to Bitcoin, the BIPs for Schnorr, Taproot and TapScript have now been numbered.
These changes have the ability to introduce more privacy and fungibility to the base chain (and a whole lot of other things), and would thus also improve the privacy of Lightning Network transactions. If you’d like to learn more about the specifications for the changes, and understand a bit of the mathematics behind them head on over to the BIPs.
BitMEX Research — Over 60,000 Non-Cooperative Channel Closures
The BitMEX Research team posted the 6th part to their Lightning Network analysis series of posts, this one containing very interesting data with regards to the current network size/capacity. The piece focuses primarily on studying and analyzing non-cooperative channel-closure transactions that leave distinct footprint on the main chain.
Our database illustrates that non-cooperative channel closures are relatively common and that lightning network usage is higher than expected.
Lightning Network nodes can connect publicly or privately with other nodes. Public-facing nodes use the gossip network to tell other nodes about their view of the network (and vice-versa). But the private nodes/channels are not published, because their aim is to remain private to only the two parties involved. By analyzing the main Bitcoin chain, BitMEX Research was able to gather data that can reliably be linked to Lightning Network non-cooperative channel-closing spends. They’re then able to compare that data set to the data set based on the view of the public Lightning Network graph seen by their many nodes — and hopefully get a better view of the private side of the network.
The team was able to identify over 60,000 non-cooperative channel closures since the network went live, which is much higher than the number that is seen in the public network. The research suggests that the use of Lightning Network in private channels/nodes is effectively larger than the current public network (read: possibly/potentially by a lot).
The team performs more analysis on the data set gathered, so I’d really advise you to read the post, and series, in full detail. I’ll leave you with this conclusion paragraph:
If one assumes that cooperative closures are twice as common as non-cooperative closures, which was the case for our own nodes and seems a conservative assumption, then one can conservatively estimate that almost 4,000 Bitcoin is the gross flow into the lightning network since inception. This excludes funds still inside private lightning channels and is likely to be an underestimate.
ZEBEDEE Workshop Advancing Bitcoin 2020
Advancing Bitcoin is a London-based conference aimed at developers interested in understanding and furthering the development of Bitcoin. The format is a series of lectures, workshops and business demonstrations.
ZEBEDEE will be attending the conference to demonstrate our platform and to run our first workshop aimed at game developers. The whole conference is well worth the price of attendance, but both ZEBEDEE parts of the conference are FREE TO ATTEND if you sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/zebedee-workshop-advancing-bitcoin-tickets-90165412175.
As a bonus to conference-goers, ZEBEDEE will be hosting a special prize fight between two speakers in the conference: Bitcoin OGs Adam Ficsor, founder of Wasabi Wallet, fighting against Nicolas Dorier, founder of BTCPayServer. Don’t miss out on this one!
Christian Moss (aka MandelDuck) will be conducting a 2-hour workshop to demonstrate how to integrate the ZEBEDEE SDKs into a Unity game. By the end of the workshop you will have built a fully functioning game with integrated payments. There will be plenty of hands-on assistance so don’t be too nervous about your level of ability. The main thing you need to bring with you is a curiosity and excitement about Bitcoin and gaming. The workshop will held on Friday 7th February at 2pm. The workshop is FREE to attend.
For more information head on over to the ZEBEDEE website:
That is all for Lightning This Week. If I’ve missed something important please let me know through the comments or on Twitter.
ZEBEDEE’s mission is to develop software and infrastructure to introduce first-class Bitcoin and Lightning support into digital experiences and gaming environments. This allows players, developers, streamers, and watchers to interact and instantly exchange value in a frictionless manner.
