Mastering the Lightning Network: A Second Layer Blockchain Protocol for Instant Bitcoin Payments
by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Rene Pickhardt
(expected publication in Q4 2020)

Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Los-Gatos-Rust-Reading-Group/events/276316072/
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84281187589
Discord: ​

https://bit.ly/35RhGXM

Github: ​
https://github.com/lnbook/lnbook


Holding Pattern

We are currently waiting for the next chapters of the book to reach Review status. Four chapters in Part 2 are in Early Draft status and seem likely to go to Review status soon.

Sessions

The Bitcoin Lightning Network white paper
March 9, 2021 Sections 1-3

Presenter

3 Bidirectional Payment Channels
3.1.2
3.3.1

Casey

Lightning Pool White Paper
https://lightning.engineering/lightning-pool-whitepaper.pdf
January 12, 2021 - Sections 3 & then 1
January 19, 2021 - Section 2
January 26, 2021 - Sections 4
February 2, 2021 - Sections 5 & 6

Presenter

Section 1

Sean

Section 2

Casey

Section 3

Sean

Section 4 - The Channel Lease Marketplace
4.1 High-Level Description

Casey

4.2 Lightning Channel Leases

Casey

4.3 Non-Custodial Auction Accounts

Casey

4.4 Order Structure & Verification

Casey

4.5 Auction Design

Casey

Section 5 - The Shadowchain: A Bitcoin Overlay Application Framework
5.1 High-Level Description
5.2 Comparison To Related Frameworks

Franck

5.3 The Shadowchain Framework

Franck

Section 6 - Lightning Pool: A Channel Liquidity Markeplace as a Shadow Chain
6.1 Instantiating a CLM
6.1.1 System Initialization
6.1.2 Lightning Pool Accounts


6.1.3 Channel Leases in the Lightning Network


6.1.4 Order Structure
6.1.5 Node Rating Agencies
6.1.6 Uniform Price Market Clearing & Matching


6.1.7 Auction Batch Execution
6.1.8 Sidecar Channel Market Clearing & Batch Execution
6.1.9 LSAT as Pool Tickets


6.2 The Lightning Pool Shadowchain
6.2.1 Lightning Pool Accounts as Lifted UTXOs
6.2.2 Auction Batch Proposal
6.2.3 Shadowchain Batch Execution
6.2.4 Unconfirmed Batch Cut-Through
6.2.5 Auction Upgrades


Chapter 5

Operating a Lightning Network Node
January 5, 2021

Presenter

Choosing your Platform

Franck

Using an installer or helper

Franck

Choose your Lightning node implementation

Franck

Installing a Bitcoin or Lightning node

Casey

Security of your node

Casey

Node and channel backups

Casey

Lightning node uptime and availability

Alex

Channel management

Alex

Routing fees

Alex

Node management

Alex

Chapter 4 - Exercises at end

Presenter

Hackergarden

everyone

Run a circular payment from a node back to itself in order to rebalance its own channels. See how that affects all the other channels and nodes.

Casey

Chapter 4 - Part 2 (to the end)

Presenter

The Lightning Network Daemon (LND) node project

Casey

The Eclair Lightning node project

Casey

Building a complete network of diverse Lightning Nodes

Casey

Hackergarden

everyone

Chapter 3 - Part 4
How the Lightning Network Works
Chapter 4 - Part 1
Lightning Node Software
November 10, 2020 - 7:00 pm pacific

Presenter

Peer-to-Peer Communication Encryption

Casey

Thoughts about Trust

Casey

Comparison with Bitcoin

Casey

Commonality of Bitcoin and Lightning

Casey

Intro and Lightning Development Environment

Casey

Docker Containers

Casey

Bitcoin Core and Regtest

Casey

The c-lightning Lightning node project

Casey

Chapter 3 - Part 3
How the Lightning Network Works
November 3, 2020 - 7:00 pm pacific

Presenter

  • Closing the channel
    Mutual close
    Force close
    Protocol breach

Amit

Invoices

Franck - 13,700

Delivering the Payment

Franck - 20,000

Source-based Pathfinding

Franck - Moon!

Peer-to-Peer Communication Encryption

Casey

Thoughts about Trust

Casey

Comparison with Bitcoin

Casey - back on earth there are the humble nanopayments ​Emoji :slight_smile: as we shall discuss

Commonality of Bitcoin and Lightning

Casey


Chapter 3 - Part 2
How the Lightning Network Works
October 27, 2020 - 7:00 pm pacific

Presenter

  • Funding Transaction
    Example of a poor channel opening procedure

Casey

  • Commitment Transaction

Casey

  • Cheating with prior state

Casey

  • Announcing the channel

Casey


Chapter 3 - Part 1
How the Lightning Network Works
October 20, 2020 - 7:00 pm pacific

Presenter

What is a payment channel?

Franck

Payment channel basics

Franck

Routing payments across channels

Franck

Payment channels

Casey

  • Multisig addresses

Casey


Chapters 1 & 2
Introduction & Getting Started
September 15, 2020 - 7:00 pm pacific

Presenter

Introduction

Casey

Lightning Nodes, Lightning Explorer, Lightning Wallets, Balancing complexity and control

Casey

Alice’s First Lightning Wallet, Creating a New Wallet, Loading Bitcoin Into the Wallet

Casey

From Bitcoin to Lightning Network

Casey

Buying a Cup of Coffee

Casey