A simple bitcoin Q/A. Learn new and interesting stuff about bitcoin.

[vit05]

What is lightning network?

Think of the phone in the old days. To call and talk to someone you had to open a call with a carrier and she would connect you to the other end. This had a high cost because it was something unexpected that involved various actions and people.

Today, its cost is close to zero when using some messager to connect with another person. This is because you are already connected to the network, just like the other person. You are already connected even if you are not exchanging any information directly. When you need to change some information, this cost is much lower than when calling someone.

In the LN the same occurs. You open a channel and connect to someone using this second layer. Unlike using blockchain directly, your costs will be lower, since you are using this second layer.

[1714109321]

1714109321

[1714109321]

1714109321

[1714109321]

1714109321

[shahzadafzal]

Since the lightning network is becoming more popular now,a lot of people are really confused on what actually it is.  So here's a question about it:

Question: What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?

What is lightning network?
This is an idea for a instant peer to peer off-chain transactions, without touching the information stored on the blockchain

What's its role?
To minimize the number of transactions per block, (logically increases the overall network speed)

what does it do
It minimizes the fee and eliminates the long confirmation time of blockchian. Thus making transactions almost instant. For security it uses blockchain smart-contracts.

LN is less secure of course because the beauty of blockchian is missing however it can be used for micro or low risk payments.

[joms123]

Since the lightning network is becoming more popular now,a lot of people are really confused on what actually it is.  So here's a question about it:

Question: What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?

I am looking for a simple answer or basically in layman's terms,so that people can actually understand.

I am eagerly waiting for the next question.

Oh crap,I almost forgot..Don't post just because you have to earn a merit. I am seeing a lot of one/two liners just being rephrased from third party websites. Please understand what you're writing. Or just don't do anything rather.

Lightning Network

This terms explains everything in a clever way, so I’ll simply reiterate for the laziest who don’t feel like clicking a link:

You and I sign a contract.

As long as we both respect it, no one else needs to know we have this contract. But if I try to screw you, you want to be sure there’s someone who can force me to desist.

That’s Lightning Network: the contract is a smart contract, the enforcer is the blockchain. As long as no one breaks the law, millions of smart contracts can be stipulated simultaneously off chain, thus reducing greatly the amount of congestion on chain, but as soon as there’s a contentious, the smart contract can be broadcasted on the network (classic BTC transaction) and the power of blockchain will fix the issue. As simple as that. It’s just the translation of common practices into crypto-space.

[theyoungmillionaire]

Since the lightning network is becoming more popular now,a lot of people are really confused on what actually it is.  So here's a question about it:

Question: What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?

I am looking for a simple answer or basically in layman's terms,so that people can actually understand.

I am eagerly waiting for the next question.

Oh crap,I almost forgot..Don't post just because you have to earn a merit. I am seeing a lot of one/two liners just being rephrased from third party websites. Please understand what you're writing. Or just don't do anything rather.

Lightning Network

This terms explains everything in a clever way, so I’ll simply reiterate for the laziest who don’t feel like clicking a link:

You and I sign a contract.

As long as we both respect it, no one else needs to know we have this contract. But if I try to screw you, you want to be sure there’s someone who can force me to desist.

That’s Lightning Network: the contract is a smart contract, the enforcer is the blockchain. As long as no one breaks the law, millions of smart contracts can be stipulated simultaneously off chain, thus reducing greatly the amount of congestion on chain, but as soon as there’s a contentious, the smart contract can be broadcasted on the network (classic BTC transaction) and the power of blockchain will fix the issue. As simple as that. It’s just the translation of common practices into crypto-space.

Your answer is just a copy paste from this website: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Lightening-Network-and-what-does-it-do-Which-cryptocurrency-stands-to-gain-the-most-from-this-technology . You should at least cited their website as your source.

11.Plagiarizing or copy pasting content from various sources is NOT allowed. Rephrasing such content is also not allowed.

[pugman]

Since the lightning network is becoming more popular now,a lot of people are really confused on what actually it is.  So here's a question about it:

Question: What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?

I am looking for a simple answer or basically in layman's terms,so that people can actually understand.

I am eagerly waiting for the next question.

Oh crap,I almost forgot..Don't post just because you have to earn a merit. I am seeing a lot of one/two liners just being rephrased from third party websites. Please understand what you're writing. Or just don't do anything rather.

Lightning Network

This terms explains everything in a clever way, so I’ll simply reiterate for the laziest who don’t feel like clicking a link:

You and I sign a contract.

As long as we both respect it, no one else needs to know we have this contract. But if I try to screw you, you want to be sure there’s someone who can force me to desist.

That’s Lightning Network: the contract is a smart contract, the enforcer is the blockchain. As long as no one breaks the law, millions of smart contracts can be stipulated simultaneously off chain, thus reducing greatly the amount of congestion on chain, but as soon as there’s a contentious, the smart contract can be broadcasted on the network (classic BTC transaction) and the power of blockchain will fix the issue. As simple as that. It’s just the translation of common practices into crypto-space.

Your answer is just a copy paste from this website: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Lightening-Network-and-what-does-it-do-Which-cryptocurrency-stands-to-gain-the-most-from-this-technology . You should at least cited their website as your source.

You have got to be kidding me.. I gave you(joms123) the benefit of the doubt,and it kinda screwed me over. I can't take back the merit I gave to joms123 but you're getting banned.
Thanks theyoungmillionaire  for bringing me this to attention.

[cabalism13]

You have got to be kidding me.. I gave you(joms123) the benefit of the doubt,and it kinda screwed me over. I can't take back the merit I gave to joms123 but you're getting banned.
Thanks theyoungmillionaire  for bringing me this to attention.

BURNED. You've been tricked of some precious word of somebody. That guy is actually a shitposter as you can review his account and old posts. 

[shahzadafzal]

Your answer is just a copy paste from this website: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Lightening-Network-and-what-does-it-do-Which-cryptocurrency-stands-to-gain-the-most-from-this-technology . You should at least cited their website as your source.

he did not even rephrase...
Good catch mate.... but just little late pugman already awarded him

Yeah this definition is pretty straight forward and most laziest one like he said.

But pugman was looking for this answer? Really?
To me question was having three parts "What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?" i thought it should be answered to the point and separately

Anyway next time will go for the lazy answer :p

That guy is actually a shitposter as you can review his account and old posts. 

Too much copy paste, and without source but he is wining merits another post copied from quora

pugman next question please?

[cryptothief]

but as soon as there’s a contentious, the smart contract can be broadcasted on the network (classic BTC transaction)

I may be misreading it, but surely this part of the contentiously quoted answer should be consensus for the answer to make sense anyway?

[theyoungmillionaire]

Your answer is just a copy paste from this website: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Lightening-Network-and-what-does-it-do-Which-cryptocurrency-stands-to-gain-the-most-from-this-technology . You should at least cited their website as your source.

he did not even rephrase...
Good catch mate.... but just little late pugman already awarded him

Yeah this definition is pretty straight forward and most laziest one like he said.

But pugman was looking for this answer? Really?
To me question was having three parts "What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?" i thought it should be answered to the point and separately

Anyway next time will go for the lazy answer :p

That guy is actually a shitposter as you can review his account and old posts. 

Too much copy paste, and without source but he is wining merits another post copied from quora

pugman next question please?

He joined my topic Get Merit Service, which is why I got the chance to check his profile and his post. Upon reviewing, I have notice some words that I have already read from another article, so I did my research to check if I am correct. Yes, correct, all from www.quora.com. See summary.

[cryptothief]

He/she is a serial copy paster, didn't even have to go too deep in to the posts to come to that inevitable conclusion. I reported a couple of the ones they got merit for to hopefully avoid anyone else giving merit to them undeservedly.

[pugman]

BURNED. You've been tricked of some precious word of somebody. That guy is actually a shitposter as you can review his account and old posts. 

Hmmm...Yeah. My bad that I didn't do any background check,can't help it,I am a lazy ass. But don't worry,I'll keep an eye,especially in my thread.

But hey,in my defense,it looked like he was actually explaining it by himself but apparently not. Still,I apologize for that laziness of mine.

What's done is done,he's banned now:

Code:

Autoban user: N/A in topic #0 by member #1841711

he did not even rephrase...
Good catch mate.... but just little late pugman already awarded him

Yeah this definition is pretty straight forward and most laziest one like he said.

But pugman was looking for this answer? Really?
To me question was having three parts "What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?" i thought it should be answered to the point and separately

Anyway next time will go for the lazy answer :p

Doesn't matter now that I merited him,I still have a few left,and I'll probably be a little more stricter in handing out merits from now on.. I wasn't looking for that answer but I liked the way he had explained it only to find out that it was a copy/paste.

pugman next question please?

Sure,let me first go through the answers,and get one for y'all.

He/she is a serial copy paster, didn't even have to go too deep in to the posts to come to that inevitable conclusion. I reported a couple of the ones they got merit for to hopefully avoid anyone else giving merit to them undeservedly.

Do not worry anymore,he's perma-banned.

[bill gator]

Your answer is just a copy paste ... You should at least cited their website as your source.

I've given you a little bit of merit for your findings, because I have been too busy to help pugman out with this thread very much. I hope to be back to business as usual very soon, but I've been working on putting together a mining operation and it has been very time consuming. Regardless, good catch on the plagiarism; it's unfortunate that we didn't catch it prior to awarding it merit.

Don't beat yourself up over it pugman, it's only a single merit and it is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Let's try to be more diligent moving forward, with maybe a quick google search on different portions of their answer, or something like that. There are free plagiarism checkers all around the internet that would make this a very easy part of the job.

[theyoungmillionaire]

Your answer is just a copy paste ... You should at least cited their website as your source.

I've given you a little bit of merit for your findings, because I have been too busy to help pugman out with this thread very much. I hope to be back to business as usual very soon, but I've been working on putting together a mining operation and it has been very time consuming. Regardless, good catch on the plagiarism; it's unfortunate that we didn't catch it prior to awarding it merit.

Don't beat yourself up over it pugman, it's only a single merit and it is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Let's try to be more diligent moving forward, with maybe a quick google search on different portions of their answer, or something like that. There are free plagiarism checkers all around the internet that would make this a very easy part of the job.

Glad to help, bill gator. I will assist pugman while you are busy; this thread inspired me to start a topic about merit service in Philippine section, it is assign of my gratitude(helping here). Looking forward to hear positive feedback about your mining operation project, bill gator. Congrats in advance.

[r1s2g3]

Since the lightning network is becoming more popular now,a lot of people are really confused on what actually it is.  So here's a question about it:

Question: What is lightning network? What's its role and what does it do?

It is tough to give very brief summary on lightinig Network but I will try to be very brief and put as much information in less words.

Why we need Lighting network?
The current bitcoin network will not be able to handle if we have to do transactions on large scale as current network will able to handle only 7 (tps) transactions per seconds (which is nowhere when compared to 56000 tps capablity of VISA and handling 4000 tps during peaktime.) So Lightinig Network is a proposed solution that will able to help in doing billion of transactions per day without affecting the blockchain.

How Lightining Network will work?
When two parties are interacting with each other on regular basis then they can commit to signing the transaction  without broadcasting to global bitcoin blockchain. This will remove dependency from blockchain. They can create fund into a 2 of-2 multisignature address (where it requires consent from both parties to create spend).

Micro payment channel created above will create relationship between two parties only. To make bitcoin scalable we will need  a large network of channels on the Bitcoin blockchain. That network will be lighting network.

Lightinig Network will use Hashed TimeLock Contract for security of transactions.

Benefit of lightining network
Rapid payments: payments within an established channel can be made almost as fast as data can travel over the Internet between the two peers.
No third-party trust: the two peers in a channel pay each other directly using regular Bitcoin transactions (of which only one is broadcast) so at no point does any third party control their funds.
Reduced blockchain load
Channels can stay open indefinitely
Rapid cooperative closes
Outsourcable enforcement
Onion-style routing
Multisignature capable
Securely cross blockchains
Sub-satoshi payments
Single-funded channels

Current vulnerability in Lighting network.
Improper Timelocks: Participants must choose timelocks with sufficient amounts of time. If insufficient time is given, it is possible that timelocked transactions believed to be invalid will become valid, enabling coin theft by the counterparty.
Forced Expiration Spam:If a malicious participant creates many  channels and forces them all to expire at once, these may overwhelm block  data capacity, forcing expiration and broadcast to the blockchain. The resultwould be mass spam on the bitcoin network.
Coin Theft via Cracking: As parties must be online and using private keys to sign, there is a possibility  that, if the computer where the private keys are stored is compromised, coins will be stolen by the attacker.
Data Loss : When one party loses data, it is possible for the counterparty to steal funds.
Forgetting to Broadcast the Transaction in Time

All these vulnerablity can be mitigated and Lighting Network will give Bitcoin Network to do billion transactions in a day using the desktop/Home pcs.

In short, Lightning Network will be bidirectional micro payment channel that will help to solve the problem of scalablity in bitcoin Network.

References:
https://www.weusecoins.com/assets/pdf/library/Lightning%20Network%20Whitepaper.pdf
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightning_Network
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hashed_Timelock_Contracts
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Payment_channels

[pugman]

Question: What exactly is BIP 75?

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

Question: What exactly is BIP 75?

BIP0075 is basically an upgrade of the BIP0070 suggested by Gavin and Mike. Before explaining BIP 75, we need to understand what is a Payment Protocol?

A payment protocol is basically a communication method between a sender and receiver of coins. The communication method is a human understandable payment destinations where the receiver will authorize the payment. This proposal most probably prevents the man in the middle attack and the sender receives a "Payment received" message to conform the transaction. Additionally refund addresses are also generated.

These protocol options has a disadvantage that it cannot be used for peer to peer payments. But BIP0075 solves this by encrypting the communication end to end. This protocol also allows the sender to validate the identity of the receiver and a user friendly transaction is thus created.

[shahzadafzal]

Question: What exactly is BIP 75?

BIP stands for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal and BIP-XX are the payment protocols. BIP 75 proposed some major enhancements to the Bitcoin Payments Protocol.
 
- Support for 2-way identity exchange (the bitcoin payment information can be exchanged between both parties of the transaction, at the same time information is secured by strong end-to-end encryption)
- With BIP 75 users can generate a payment request like an invoice with verified identity and receiver can directly make the payment minimizing the chances of sending payment to a wrong address.

[Heidim]

Question: What exactly is BIP 75?

The way I understand it is that BIP 75 allows both parties in the transaction option to know the identity of the person they are making the transaction with. But the information is still secure so no 3rd party will have access to the information. If I understand correctly this is used when for example I buy something from a merchant that accepts Bitcoin, they can also record shipping addresses etc and I the buyer knows who I am doing business with.

Hopefully I understand this correctly  If not, feel free to help me understand. Please also pardon me if the English is not 100%

[pugman]

I am really sorry guys that I am not in the situation to reply to every single one of your posts,but please give me some time,I'll come around really soon and correct. It may be even tomorrow,I just need some time. Please ,I am sorry again.

[pugman]

Question :How are blocks created?