8 votes

What does TLV stand for?

TLV stands for type-length-value. It's an encoding scheme used when protocols allow for optional elements in their messages. The type is a label telling you what field you're looking at, the length ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
7 votes

What are prerequisites and best online resources to learn everything about Lightning Network

When I started to learn about the Lightning Network I started pretty much from 0. In particular I had pretty much no idea how Bitcoin worked. So I will argue it is possible to learn about bitcoin on ...
Rene Pickhardt's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

Why aren't 3 party (or more) channels realistically possible in lightning today?

Today's lightning channels use the ln-penalty update mechanism. Each time an HTLC is staged or resolved, the channel owners negotiate new commitment transactions for each side. As part of the ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
6 votes
Accepted

Should I keep my Lightning node data around after decomissioning?

My first thought was that from a protocol perspective I don't see why any other node would send coins to your addresses after your node has been decomissioned. However two edge cases come to my mind: ...
Rene Pickhardt's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Eltoo: Does the relative locktime on the first UTXO set the lifetime of the channel?

Yes, you’re reading it right. The construction presented here has a limited lifetime since the Settle_0 transaction becomes valid at some point. However, later in the paper, the authors introduce an ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
5 votes

Lightning channel decrease capacity

As mentioned by Antoine, Alice and Bob could make a transaction to close the channel, Alice could use her payout to make the payment, and then Alice could use the change of that payment reopen the ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
5 votes
Accepted

Can a miner open a Lightning channel with a coinbase output?

After thinking some more about it: it would be impractical to open a channel with a coinbase output. For one, there is the maturation period for coinbase outputs. Since coinbase outputs can only be ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
4 votes

Lightning channel decrease capacity

If you mean decreasing the capacity of the channel to 1.5BTC in order to withdraw 0.5BTC onchain, it is possible in theory but not yet part of the Lightning Network protocol nor its implementations. ...
Antoine Poinsot's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

Can you use bitcoin seed phrase to create/restore lightning wallet?

Your lightning wallet will use addresses from a different HD derivation path, so chances are if you input the same seed phrase, you won't see your bitcoin-wallet funds available in your lightning-...
chytrik's user avatar
  • 17.9k
4 votes
Accepted

Muun Wallet - All Funds Stored On-Chain?

At the time of writing this, Muun does indeed store all balance on-chain. It does not open any Lightning channels and instead uses submarine swaps for Lightning payments, which means it has to make an ...
Vojtěch Strnad's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

How do I set the our_to_self_delay parameter?

In Lightning the to_self_delay parameter is influenced by your peer. When a node opens a channel to yours, they advertise the minimum they are going to accept. On Core-Lightning you can set the ...
Antoine Poinsot's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

Is there any Bitcoin layer (eg. Bitcoin = L1, Lightning = L2, etc.) on which the satoshi (SAT) is divisible?

The native unit of the Bitcoin protocol is the satoshi. All output values in Bitcoin transactions are expressed in whole numbers of satoshis. Bitcoin's protocol does not use any non-integer values for ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
4 votes
Accepted

Running Bitcoin SPV Node

How can I run a Bitcoin SPV node? You run Bitcoin SPV software. They're often called "lightweight clients" or "lightweight wallets". Several mobile wallets implement SPV ...
Pieter Wuille's user avatar
3 votes

Can I create an invoice for a Lightning address I don't own?

When you mention "Lightning address" here, from the rest of the question I assume you mean a Lightning node's ID or public key. If this is the case, then you absolutely cannot create a ...
dunxen's user avatar
  • 86
3 votes
Accepted

What is the current status of watchtower implementations in October 2022? Are they mature, widely in use?

There is a draft BOLT for watchtowers here. As of October 2022 Eye of Satoshi currently supports Core Lightning but it doesn't support LND or eclair. LDK support is in the works. The Eye of Satoshi ...
Michael Folkson's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

What is the November 2022 bug in LND, what caused it and what would prevent a similar bug in future?

This November 2022 bug is very similar to the October 2022 bug. This time it impacted a number more open source projects (e.g. Liquid and LDK) as rust-bitcoin also wasn't able to deal with the ...
Michael Folkson's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

How does Lightning Node communicate with Bitcoin node?

Lightning Channels are just unbroadcast cached Bitcoin transactions. So yes, Lightning Nodes need to keep abreast of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain to notice new channels getting opened, ...
Murch's user avatar
  • 69.7k
3 votes

Eltoo: Does the relative locktime on the first UTXO set the lifetime of the channel?

Current thinking is (I believe) just to have a funding utxo on chain ("Setup_0") which is always spent by some update transaction ("Update_1" etc; there is no "Settle_0") ...
Anthony Towns's user avatar
3 votes

Eltoo: Does the relative locktime on the first UTXO set the lifetime of the channel?

Thanks for the feedback! I replaced "Update: 0" with a "Funding: 0" which is put on-chain when the channel is opened and the channel parties have both signed the first off-chain &...
Richard Myers's user avatar
2 votes

What is "Link-Level Multiplexing"?

It means that one peer can decide what is the best way of reaching another when forwarding a HTLC. Let Alice and Bob having 2 channels between then, each one with 0.5 on each side, so looks like this: ...
Davidson Souza's user avatar
2 votes

How can I increase the routing my 'small' lighting node performs?

If I was trying to solve for the largest number of transactions routed I would be very intentional with which nodes I open channels. Here is a methodology that you could try starting with a fresh node ...
jpkiser's user avatar
  • 41
2 votes

Broadcasting fake Lightning channels

I think you answered your own question in the first part: Gossip at no-cost on a broadcast network is a potential Denial-of-Service attack vector. Since there is nothing stopping Sybil from creating ...
Mark H's user avatar
  • 3,304
2 votes
Accepted

Virtual Lightning channels for high availability

There are currently ideas being discussed to have Gossip v2 which would be a bit more private. The reason why I mention this is that currently every channel is bound to a UTXO to prevent spam. In ...
Rene Pickhardt's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

Is there an absolute limit the payment request expiry?

I think it is not explicitly specified. But c-lightning uses for example an unsigned int 64. Overall the expiry is obviously created to allow nodes to not store payment preimages for requested ...
Rene Pickhardt's user avatar
2 votes

Alternative fee functions for the Lightning Network

I'm not familiar with any proposals to add new variables to the fee function. There have been discussions on HODL invoices which would (if enabled on the Lightning Network) require additional fees ...
Michael Folkson's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

Actively used bech32(m) address with invalid checksum?

The following address uses witness version 0 Correct. and its checksum is the one expected for bech32m addresses. No, it uses the bech32 checksum. What makes you conclude that it is bech32m? ...
Pieter Wuille's user avatar
2 votes

Can we send fund from one channel to another in Lightning?

The Lightning Network is a network of routed payment channels. You can transfer funds from one channel to another by finding a route and adjusting the balances of the channel participants along the ...
Antoine Poinsot's user avatar
2 votes

Can you do P2WSH / P2SH on Lightning Network (LN)?

As you realized the point of Lightning is to reduce latency. At the same time coordinating signatures from various parties in order to move forward the state seems rather impractical. Thus as far as I ...
Rene Pickhardt's user avatar
2 votes

How does Lightning payment service Works?

How does existing lightning payment service were able to manage to provide merchant's BTC in form of fiat It doesn't. Hedging currencies is something that must be performed outside the Lightning or ...
RedGrittyBrick's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

One to many transactions on the Lightning Network, practical approach/limits?

Today transaction throughput on the Lightning Network is mostly limited by available liquidity, network topology and direction of payments. It is possible longer term if Lightning becomes widely ...
Michael Folkson's user avatar

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