Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Telegram
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Press Release
    • Contact
    Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Telegram
    BlockonomiBlockonomi
    • Prices
      • All Coins
      • Bitcoin Price
      • Ethereum Price
      • Ripple Price
      • EOS Price
      • Litecoin Price
      • Monero Price
      • Binance Coin Price
      • Bitcoin Cash Price
      • Chainlink Price
      • Cardano Price
      • Stellar Price
      • Tron Price
    • Sections
      • All
      • Analysis
      • Bitcoin
      • Ethereum
      • Education
      • Trading
      • Buying
      • DeFi
      • NFTs
      • Metaverse
      • Exchanges
      • Brokers
      • Guides
      • Gaming
      • Privacy
      • Business
      • Finance
      • Fintech
      • Regulation
      • Security
    • Claim Free Crypto!
    • Gamble With Crypto!
    • Easily Buy Crypto!
    Home / About / Advertise / Submit Press Release
    BlockonomiBlockonomi
    News

    Lightning Network Ecosystem Gains Valuable Experience in New Bug Fix

    William M. PeasterBy William M. PeasterSeptember 30, 2019No Comments4 Mins Read
    Telegram Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Email
    What are Watchtowers?
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Telegram WhatsApp

    The Lightning Network, the micropayments solution that is being developed to scale bitcoin transactions, is newly hardened after its builders coordinated to patch a bug that attackers could have exploited to steal other users’ funds.

    What are Watchtowers?

    The bug, which was discovered by developer Rusty Russell on June 27th and first publicly revealed on August 30th, could have been used by an attacker to fake channel openings to cheat other users of their money, as Russell explained in a full disclosure report published on September 27th:

    “A lightning node accepting a channel must check that the funding transaction output does indeed open the channel proposed. Otherwise an attacker can claim to open a channel but either not pay to the peer, or not pay the full amount.”

    For context, the second-layer network is layered atop Bitcoin, as it facilitates quick off-chain bitcoin transactions between users who have opened payment channels with each other. Once these channels are closed, their collections of transactions are sent on-chain as one efficient bitcoin payment instead of many, which opens the doors to micropayments.

    Upon the patch of this latest vulnerability then, these channels will no longer be able to be spoofed. Lightning’s three main implementations — c-lightning, lnd, and eclair — had all been vulnerable in previous versions.

    The network currently has $6.9 million USD worth of bitcoin locked up in its channels according to tracker site DeFi Pulse. In his disclosure report, Russell noted that it appears no one exploited the bug while it was live.

    “The problem with this vulnerability is that once you know about it, it seems so obvious,” Pierre-Marie Padiou, the chief executiver officer of eclair maintainers ACINQ, told CoinDesk on Friday.

    Beyond the Fix, There Is a Bright Side

    Table of Contents

    • Beyond the Fix, There Is a Bright Side
    • Micropayments the Future?

    The silver lining?

    The level of coordination that went into this bug fix was unprecedented in the Lightning ecosystem, meaning the lines have now been laid for project stakeholders to work together that much more efficiently in the future.

    “While this long-standing bug had not been independently discovered, and thus was unlikely to be discovered by a malicious party before being fixed, it did provide an opportunity to test communications and methods of upgrade across the entire lightning ecosystem,” Russell wrote in the full disclosure report.

    So while the “This is good for Bitcoin” may be a bit overused lately, this bug fix is good for Lightning — not simply because the problem is now rectified but also because it spurred the conditions for the project to be more resistant going forward.

    Micropayments the Future?

    Like many things in the cryptoverse, Lightning is an open question. And there is still plenty of work to be done around the network before it can be thought of as a mature payments system.

    With that said, the project’s basic infrastructure is already in place and it’s pointing to a future where micropayments become not just feasible but practical. That’s according to LNBIG, the pseudonymous operator who presently provides capacity for a large swathe of Lightning, in a recent interview with The Block:

    “I have no doubt in Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. In any case, the Lightning Network is the same breakthrough in itself as Bitcoin. Micropayments are the future. Especially without waiting a long time. Over the year, I saw how many merchants on the Lightning Network appeared. I see no reason for this to slow down. It may take another year for LN to get the properties users need. The infrastructure for payments will be formed. But the basic infrastructure is already there, and it’s becoming significant.”

    If LNBIG is right, then bitcoin isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

    Advertise Here
    William M. Peaster
    • Website
    • X (Twitter)
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn

    William M. Peaster is a professional writer and editor who specializes in the Ethereum, Dai, and Bitcoin beats in the cryptoeconomy. He's appeared in Blockonomi, Binance Academy, Bitsonline, and more. He enjoys tracking smart contracts, DAOs, dApps, and the Lightning Network. He's learning Solidity, too! Contact him on Telegram at @wmpeaster

    Related Posts

    Algorand’s Python Integration Set to Transform Blockchain App Development Forever

    December 8, 2023

    EOS Network – An Enterprise-Grade Blockchain Operating System

    November 29, 2023

    Former OneCoin Compliance Chief Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Money Laundering

    November 10, 2023

    Comments are closed.

    Coinbase Earn
    Advertise Here
    Gambling
    • mBit Casino
      VisitReview
    • BC Game
      VisitReview
    • Duelbits
      VisitReview
    • BitcoinCasino
      VisitReview
    • FortuneJack
      VisitReview
    • 1xBit
      VisitReview
    Exchanges
    • KuCoin
      VisitReview
    • Coinbase
      VisitReview
    • Binance
      VisitReview
    • PrimeXBT
      VisitReview
    Koinly
    Advertise Here
    Trading Bots
    • 3Commas
      VisitReview
    • Cryptohopper
      VisitReview
    • CoinRule
      VisitReview
    3commas Trading Bot
    Advertise Here
    All content on Blockonomi.com is provided solely for informational purposes, and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security, product, service or investment. The opinions expressed in this Site do not constitute investment advice and independent financial advice should be sought where appropriate.
    Blockonomi™ Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Kooc Media Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered Company No.05695741
    Network: Moneycheck - Finance News / Beanstalk - NFT & Metaverse News
    • About
    • Contact
    • Deals
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.