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Lightning devs should ‘get up’ and repair safety bugs, not please VCs: Bitcoin dev

26 Nov 2023
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Builders engaged on the Bitcoin layer 2 Lightning Community have grow to be much less security-oriented and extra targeted on producing money circulation for his or her traders, argues a former Lightning Community developer.

Bitcoin core developer and safety researcher Antoine Riard, made headlines final month after leaving the Lightning ecosystem over considerations a couple of new assault vector referred to as “alternative biking,” which exploiters may probably use to steal funds by concentrating on fee channels.

On the time, Riard stated the brand new class of assaults places Lighting in a “perilous place” although some observers argued that 

Riard informed Cointelegraph that he’s now working on the Bitcoin base layer to deal with the problem and urged Lightning builders to comply with swimsuit:

“[They need to] get up, cease the sleepwalking and go to the whiteboard to design a strong and sustainable repair in hand with different builders on the base-layer, preserving the long-term decentralization and openness of Lightning.”

Riard additionally claimed that many Lightning-focused corporations are compromising Lightning’s mission and safety incentives for the sake of pleasing enterprise capitalists:

“The unhappy truth being most of them are working for VC-funded entities, or business entities with the identical low-time desire, on the long-term detriment of end-users.”

Riard stated it’s a traditional instance of the “tragedy of the commons” — the place people and entities with entry to a public useful resource act in their very own curiosity and deplete it.

Decentralization seems to be a trade-off that these VC-funded Lightning corporations are prepared to make, which is a serious concern to Riard.

“Centralized programs are nice within the scale of effectivity, nevertheless they arrive with the draw back of systemic single-point-of-failure and decrease value of person censorship, basic dangers that one may want to hedge towards as a Bitcoiner.”

“I am unsure that is an fascinating Lightning future,” Riard stated. In truth, it’s one thing which he needs no a part of, after departing from the Lightning ecosystem on Oct. 20:

“I don’t want to be related to being in cost or accountable of the Lightning Community safety, and the ~5,300 BTC uncovered right here. There may be little [I and others] can do to halt the haemorrhage, with out compromising the core values of censorship-resistance and permissionless of the Lightning Community.”

Associated: Bitcoin Lightning Network growth jumps 1,200% in 2 years

The Lightning Community is the second-layer answer constructed over the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s designed to enhance the scalability and effectivity of Bitcoin

By way of the Lightning Community, customers can open fee channels, conduct a number of transactions off-chain, and settle the ultimate outcome on the Bitcoin blockchain. The alternative biking assault is a brand new sort of assault that enables the attacker to steal funds from a channel participant by exploiting inconsistencies between particular person mempools.

Cointelegraph reached out to Lightning Labs and different corporations within the Lighting ecosystem however didn’t obtain a response.

Nevertheless, regardless of the safety considerations and potential transfer towards centralization, Riard defined that Lightning hasn’t seen as many assaults as many Ethereum layer 2s as a result of Lightning customers sometimes solely retailer a small quantity of funds of their wallets at any given time.

A complete of $194.1 million in BTC is locked within the Lightning Community, according to DeFiLlama.

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