Author: Jaleel, BlockBeats

"Lightning is a scam," according to a screenshot shared by Nikita, the Chief Developer at Blockchair. In the comments, Fiatjaf, the founder of Nostr (@fiatjaf), agreed with another user that the Lightning Network is "faulty" and "unpolished," while also questioning why it is a scam.

"It has been scamming Bitcoin users for 6 years, taking their time, energy, and money," replied Fiatjaf.

Image source: Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh)

Nostr's "Zap Culture" Derived from Lightning Network Integration

On November 20, 2019, fiatjaf began developing the Nostr protocol, hoping to create a simple, open, globally supported, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social protocol. That day, he wrote in his own blog: "Nostr is the simplest open protocol based on encrypted keys and signatures, independent of any trusted central server, independent of P2P technology, and can create a censorship-resistant global social network once and for all."

fiatjaf is a person with strong humanistic care, hoping to help everyone's rights be respected and protected, and to make people become human. As a technical expert, on his personal website, he recommends hundreds of book lists in the field of sociology and philosophy.

After a year, in November 2020, the first group of participants gradually expanded. Nostr began discussing the possibility of a decentralized social network, the possibility of providing funding for such projects, the possibility of supporting smart contracts, and the name of the Nostr protocol, among other things.

Nostr has no institutional financing and no token model, which is in line with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's expectations for the next generation of social platforms. Therefore, he donated 14 BTC to Nostr and has been publicly supporting the platform.

When experiencing the Nostr protocol on BlockBeats, you may often come across the phrase "请给我你的发票" which actually means "Please give me your Lightning Network payment address". You can directly provide your payment address to the other party, or you can set a payment amount and then provide the address to them.

This is the Zap function of the Nostr protocol after it is integrated with the Lightning Network, making it very simple for creators to monetize their content. BTCStudy contributor Ajian also believed that when discussing the value of Nostr, the Lightning Network cannot be ignored, otherwise it would be like buying a casket and returning a pearl.

When anyone expresses their liking, they don't use "Like", but "Zap". By sending a certain amount of SAT to support the content you like, the creator economy may grow. When more people naturally Zap the content they appreciate, the Zap culture will spread in the Nostr network, motivating creators to output higher quality content and turning the commercial wheel.

Connecting to the Lightning Network payment system has always been Jack Dorsey's idea. He has always hoped to replace "Like" with "Repost" and "Zap" because these two actions involve value exchange, reputation, and monetary costs.

And now, Nostr creator Fiatjaf has stated that "Lightning is a scam that has been stealing time, energy, and money from Bitcoin users for 6 years." Community member @bitrabbit_btc said, "The creator of Nostr has become a role similar to that of BCH/BSV supporters by calling the Lightning Network a scam, which is really regrettable."

The creator of GPT-4 Bot, Mira Hurley, believes that the Lightning Network involves "huge time and energy consumption," but thinks that the term "scam" is too strong.

Two developers left one after another

The recent situation of Lightning Network also reveals some clues. Recently, two developers have announced their withdrawal from work related to Lightning Network.

On October 30th, Anton Kumaigorodski, the first developer of the mobile Lightning wallet, announced his resignation on Nostr. Udi Wertheimer, the founder of TaprootWizards, reposted the full announcement on Twitter. Anton Kumaigorodski cited three reasons for leaving the Lightning Network:

1. Serious development of the Lightning Network is both difficult and time-consuming. The entire Lightning Network protocol is too complex and getting worse. Only a few well-known experts can develop it at a very slow pace. Philosophically, I believe that Bitcoin as a protocol should have a complexity barrier so that it does not exceed the point where outsiders cannot understand and trust it. I think the Lightning Network has passed this barrier. 2. After more than 6 years of struggle, the Lightning Network has surpassed a community mainly composed of ideological users without obvious success or views. My view is that ultimately the Lightning Network is not the expectation of the entire market for Bitcoin. People should look for other directions instead of focusing too much on the Lightning Network, except for stupid payments. 3. The remaining Lightning Network needs are mainly absorbed by various custodial solutions. In terms of user experience, a truly non-custodial Lightning Network wallet is always worse than a custodial wallet. Historically, we have seen that most remaining users always choose convenience over control. This makes developing non-custodial Lightning Network solutions for end users feel like the most difficult and thankless task in the world. "

循环漏洞

translates to

Loop Vulnerability

Before this, Antoine Riard, a Lightning Network security researcher and developer, delved into the fund loss risks faced by Lightning Network channels in an email. These risks are mainly caused by the transaction pool replacement loop attack problem. He specifically mentioned a transaction relay interference attack that affects Lightning Network channels, which is entirely possible in practice, even without network transaction pool congestion.

Meanwhile, Riard stated that he will cease development on the Lightning Network from now on, as this new replacement loop attack puts the Lightning Network in a very dangerous position.

However, from an optimistic perspective, this type of attack is highly complex and not easy to implement. SlowMist founder, Yu Xian, shares a similar view and pointed out on social media that in order to successfully carry out this attack, the attacker needs to meet multiple conditions, such as opening two channels on the victim and ensuring that the victim does not discover the HTLC pre-image transaction. To address this threat, Yu Xian suggests that project parties establish channels with reputable parties to reduce risk.

Related reading: "Developers quit, replace loop attack risk, Bitcoin Lightning Network faces difficulties".

Bitcoin ecosystem: a world of ice and fire

Since the beginning of this year, the ecosystem and narrative of Bitcoin have become lively with the progress of Bitcoin spot ETF. With Grayscale's victory and BlackRock obtaining a CUSIP for the preparation of Bitcoin spot ETF, the SEC's attitude has undergone some subtle changes, and the market's response has been very enthusiastic.

Recently, the price of Bitcoin has reached a new high in 18 months, breaking the $35,000 mark multiple times.

However, the Lightning Network on the other side is facing an unprecedented crisis. Two developers lost confidence and announced their departure from the Lightning Network. The unsolvable circular vulnerability led Nostr's founder to call the Lightning Network a scam...

It is also worth noting that according to data retrieved from Amboss Space on October 31st, the Lightning Network lost 676 channels and 372 nodes in the past 30 days. However, despite the loss in the number of channels and nodes, the network's liquidity increased by 854 BTC (29.03 million USD) in a month.

The attitude of Nostr's founder and other developers towards the Lightning Network undoubtedly brings new thinking to the Bitcoin community. While the progress of Bitcoin ETF is receiving strong attention from the market, the Lightning Network is facing unprecedented challenges and controversies. How to balance innovation and security in the future of the Lightning Network will be an important issue that all Bitcoin communities need to face.

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