Lightning Network experienced technical development in one of its services that contributes to internal and external transfers to the network in terms of efficiency, security, privacy, costs and adoption. A recent update allows users to send bitcoins from the main chain, directly to a light channel, to replace the outgoing balance using Lightning Loop. In technical terms, it is an advance in the course of the implementation of a protocol adding public keys to the algorithm of Schnoror digital signature (Musig2), whose result improves Lightning Loop, an exchanges (swap) “submarines” that moves the bitcoins from the first to the second layer.
The most recent version of LOOP allows LOOP users to finance a Loop in chain exchange long before the execution of the exchange outside the chain taking advantage of Musig2. From the end user perspective, this improves the functionality of the Loop in flow by reducing the complexity of the user's experience, which allows the possibility of setting lower costs and enabling exchange reintents. Alex Bosworth, member of Lightning Labs.
Musig2 makes multifirmas transactions more safely
Musig2 is a protocol introduced in the year 2020 as an evolution of the multifirma Musig1 protocol. Both solutions have as main objective favor exchanges, liquidity and access to this in the second layer of Bitcoin. This protocol optimizes liquidity in the light network, by allowing the creation of multisignure and more efficient and safe firms. Unlike his predecessor, Musig1, which required three communication rounds to complete a signature session, Musig2 reduces this process to only two rounds. The introduction of this protocol in LOOP simplifies the coordination between the participants and decreases the costs associated with the transactions.
Compared to the previous multifirma methods, Musig2 is faster and eliminates the need for interactive communication in each step. Alex Bosworth, member of Lightning Labs.
Lightning Loop is a service that acts as a bridge between the main network of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. LOOP «submarine» swaps allow «users to exchange BTC in chain by BTC out of chain in lightning network (and vice versa) using hash time contracts blocked (HTLC), which guarantees atomicity and eliminates the risk of counterpart ”, According to Alex Bosworth, who is part of the Lightning Labs team. The last solution implemented in Lightning Loop Allows you to add BTC (Loop in) and extract BTC (Loop out) of a payment channel, balancing thereby the capacity to send and receive funds between the connected nodes. Musig2, based on Schnorr firms, houses the creation of a public key from the private keys of several signatories. This multiple cryptographic signature scheme improves privacy and reduces the space occupied in the main block chain, making the cheapest and most fast transactions, which reinforces the purpose of the Lightning Network of exercising as a Bitcoin payments channel.
Advantages for Musig2 users in LOOP
The implementation of Musig2 in Lightning Loop brings several specific benefits for Bitcoin users. Among them, it allows the most friendly use of the light network, according to Bosworth. Privacy improvement is another crucial aspect, since the multifirma transactions With Musig2 they are indistinguishable from unique signature transactions.
«Musig2 is a multiple signature system (…) that allows several parties to collaborate in a single firm, which makes it indistinguishable from the usual transactions of a single signatory in the block chain,» says the Lightning Labs Labs Blog post .
Open Lightning channels directly. Maintain these funds established in cold storage although they could put online and add to their channels instantly. Deposit directly into a cold exchange or wallet.
According to Bosworth, the last advance in the use of Musig2 gives users “the ability to finance management [de lightning] in an low rate environment to reduce chain costs associated with an exchange of Loop In ”.