this thread is intended to be a discussion around ptlcs which are an upgrade to the existing payment mechanism in the lightning network called 'hash time locked contracts (htlcs)'
simply put, this contract enables trustless, atomic routing of payments on the network by guaranteeing that the sender agrees to send money to the recipient only if the recipient reveals a secret that has generated a specific hash. if the recipient does not reveal the secret, the sender can get his coins back after a certain time. since the schoor upgrade the implementation of ptlcs became possible.
to make it easier to see and understand, here are 4 slides that explain the whole process very well: