CRYPTOCURRENCIES LATES NEWS: Bitcoin's scaling layer will be ready soon

A long wait for the launch of the Lightning network is coming to an end. In early December, startups behind the three most active implementations of Lightning revealed the results of tests with real transactions and showed that their software can work together.


With this achievement of ACINQ, Blockstream and Lightning Labs, the public launch of Lightning (a mechanism that many consider being the best solution for increasing Bitcoin's transactional capacity) is getting closer. Although technical in fact, the recent announcement proves that the fulfillment of Bitkoyun enthusiasts' wishes is not far off.

First, the Lightning specifications developed since last September received version 1. They describe the rules of the network, which can be compared to the standards that pervade the entire Internet.

Of course, the specifications will continue to evolve, but now they are good enough to base on them the first real Lightning network.

According to Pierre-Marie Padiou, the founder of ACINQ:
"This is the same Lightning standard that we have been working on for over a year. As we and other participants have invested in him a lot of energy. This is a big step forward."

Secondly, judging by more than 70 tests of the Blockstream engineer Christian Decker, which he delivered this summer, all the implementations proved to be compatible with each other.

Finally, as shown by two live transactions, the three main implementations of Lightning are really interoperable (able to interact) - with this task developers have struggled since last year.

As Padew said,
"We successfully carried out payments on the main, worldwide network, which includes several compatible implementations. It's pretty serious. "

Interoperability

Despite the fact that Lightning is still not ready to enter the public, Padew stressed that the interaction between the implementations is a key time for further development.

With the published specifications, other developers will know what rules they should rely on when building their own Lightning networks. For example, Thunder Network networks for the authorship of Blockchain and Lit from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are well-known Lightning projects that one day will be able to implement new rules.

Compatibility between implementations was demonstrated on two test transactions, giving an idea of how Lightning can be used for small payments.

One of the transactions went through the C-Lightning nodes from Blockstream to the improvised Starblocks application (similar to Starbucks) from ACINQ, in which you can buy Blokkachino for 0.015 mBTC.

Another unblocked blog post on the Y'alls content platform. In this case, I used ACINQ's Eclair purse, from which a small amount was sent via C-Lightning to Y'alls, using the LND (Lightning Network Daemon) node from Lightning Labs.

According to Padew,
"The engineers carried out both of these payments through the nodes spread all over the world. It's a very small network, but it showed interoperability in the business. "

He also noted that these payments are a real proof of the concept for the scaling mechanism.

No hurry

However, there is one more step before users will appreciate the benefits of Lightning - and this is the release of the software for working with the main network (mainnet).

According to Padew, for each implementation, you need to release a beta for the main network, which will allow the players to start realizing payments through the Lightning network.

Although many are encouraged by this prospect, it will require tremendous work before the dream of paying for morning coffee (and everything else) Bitcoin becomes a reality.

As they talked, the developers stressed that the experience of interaction has certain features that should be corrected before they recommend Lightning to the business.

According to Padew, this cautious approach to development shows that developers are trying to do everything right so that users do not have a chance to lose their money.

"It also shows how conservative this approach is. We are not going to customize anything. But we'll be finished soon."