lightning-dev
Stale Factory (and channel) problem
Posted on: April 16, 2019 11:31 UTC
ZmnSCPxj, a Bitcoin Core developer, has suggested the idea of having a "factory operator" to provide scalability while more long-lasting options are discussed.
He proposes that this factory be created from a single node doing the funding, which would be a single transaction funding multiple channels with the switchover to factories being "seamless" to users of the C-lightning API once this kind of factory is standardized. ZmnSCPxj also discusses the use of non-interactive aggregation signature schemes and how they are required for Lightning Factories to add support for "transaction fragments" dynamically. However, he notes that this requires a deeper level of mathematical knowledge. The proposal suggests that signatures could be distributed via node gossip, where third parties would not consider a "change in channels in factory" gossip message as complete until it receives all signatures from all factory members but would still gossip such fragments around. Lastly, ZmnSCPxj considers the issue of stale factories and how it might be mitigated without fixing it through similar constructions used on a Chaumian CoinJoin.