1. Home
  2. Discover
  3. Crypto
  4. Marty Bent

Marty's Ƀent - November 19th, 2021 - Issue #1115

Friday, November 19th 2021 - Issue #1115

The transition from HTLCs to PTLCs
Like it or love it, this abbreviated week of rags from this dark corner of the Internet is hyper-focused on Taproot activation. On Monday, I laid out my thesis that Taproot is a catalyst that will take Jevons Paradox into a higher gear within the Bitcoin protocol. Today, I'd like to get away from my wacky theories and highlight people much smarter than me who are actively working to leverage the benefits of Taproot to improve the Bitcoin protocol and the layers above it.

As we've discussed many times in this rag, Taproot activation enables bitcoiners to open channels on the Lightning Network in a new way by leveraging Point Time Locked Contracts (PTLCs) instead of Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLCs). The transition from HTLCs to PTLCs will bring with it privacy and efficiency gains, which everyone wants. However, before we're able to realize the benefits from a transition, bitcoiners working on and using the Lightning network need to figure out how to transition. Up until recently, this has been an unanswered question that many have been loosely brainstorming about off the record. 

Well, last month a number of developers working on the Lightning Network met in Zurich to discuss the current state of the network and ways in which they can continue to improve it. Luckily for us Olaoluwa Osuntokun, CTO of Lightning Labs, took detailed meeting minutes and shared those on the lightning-dev mailing list. A large focus of the discussions was on how to best transition from HTLCs to PTLCs. Above are a couple of snippets from Olaoluwa's notes which give a high level synopsis of two different approaches. As of right now developers are weighing two different approaches; a "big bang" transition where everyone transitions at once, and a slow iterative transition that happens in chunks over time.

Off the bat, I am partial to the iterative process. In my opinion, the "big bang" transition is preferable but not very practical as it seems like it would be extremely hard to coordinate every node operator at once. The iterative route seems more practical but also comes with the risk of falling prey to second-system syndrome.

After roughly twenty four hours of contemplation on this, this is where I currently stand. This is subject to change as more information and context comes to light. At the very least, I am extremely happy these discussions are being had and ideas are coming to the surface. This is only the beginning of the conversation and I look forward to watching it evolve to a point that produces a viable solution.

What do you think?   
Final thought...

Bill Burr is a don.

Enjoy your weekend, freaks.
Share
Tweet
Forward
Hope you enjoyed today's issue. If you have any friends that are looking to find out more about Bitcoin have them sign up for this newsletter here:
 
Get Ƀent

Ƀent noun 1. direction taken, as by one's interests; inclination.

Thanks for reading Marty's Ƀent, a daily newsletter containing all the information I found interesting in the Bitcoin world in the last 24 hours.
Copyright © 2020  TFTC.io, LLC  All rights reserved. 

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or Ƀent Over!
 

Older messages

Marty's Ƀent - November 18th, 2021 - Issue #1114

Friday, November 19, 2021

Thursday, November 18th 2021 - Issue #1114 Multisig options are expanding Here's some exciting news from Hugo Nguyen, the announcement of Nunchuck 2.0 which aims to "take bitcoin self-custody

Marty's Ƀent - November 15th, 2021 - Issue #1113

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Monday, November 15th 2021 - Issue #1113 Taproot kicks Jevons Paradox into another gear While many on Bitcoin and crypto Twitter are squabbling over the semantics in regards to the definition of a

The Sat Standard - Bitcoin Weekly - Nov 13 2021

Saturday, November 13, 2021

This week in bitcoin. Straight to the point. No bullshit. Every Saturday. View this email in your browser The Sat Standard This week in bitcoin. Straight to the point. No bullshit. Every Saturday.

Marty's Ƀent - November 12th, 2021 - Issue #1112

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Friday, November 12th 2021 - Issue #1112 Taproot activation is upon us It's that time of the quarter again, freaks; when we take a deep dive into the state of global base monies and where Bitcoin

Marty's Ƀent - November 11th, 2021 - Issue #1111

Friday, November 12, 2021

Thursday, November 11th 2021 - Issue #1111 Taproot activation is upon us It's been a minute since we talked about taproot in this weird dark corner of the Internet. As of right now, we are 321

You Might Also Like

🖊️ Trump signed an Executive Order for a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve; Cronos proposed to reissue 70 billion CRO …

Monday, March 10, 2025

Trump signed an Executive Order for a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve; Cronos proposed to reissue 70 billion CRO for a Cronos Strategic Reserve; Texas's Senate passed bitcoin reserve bill SB-21 ͏ ͏ ͏

Vitalik TAKO AMA: ETH Positioning, Sequencer Centralization, L1 vs L2, Governance, and Success Metrics

Monday, March 10, 2025

On the evening of February 19th at 12 PM UTC and lasting until 12 PM UTC on February 20th, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, was invited to participate in a flash text interview on Tako (a

Donald Trump Creates U.S. Bitcoin Reserve

Monday, March 10, 2025

March 10th, 2025 Sign Up Your Weekly Update On All Things Crypto TL;DR Donald Trump Creates US Bitcoin Reserve Diddy Shows 'Kindness' To Sam Bankman-Fried Robinhood Conducts $1M Crypto Trivia

Bitcoin’s realized volatility surges in as traders face extreme price swings

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Volatility clustering in Bitcoin reveals the impact of turbulent rallies and sharp pullbacks. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Asia's weekly TOP10 crypto news (Mar 3 to Mar 9)

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Ms. Sun Xueling, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore, said that cryptocurrency fraud cases accounted for a quarter of the total loss amount involved in fraud last year. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Trump declares end to ‘war on crypto,’ vows to propel America to Bitcoin supremacy

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Trump brands the Biden era as a crypto setback, .President Trump vows to make America the Bitcoin leader, ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and bolstering crypto strategies. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

⚡ incentive → click → sale

Saturday, March 8, 2025

PLUS: the best links, events, and jokes of the week → ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Weekly Project Updates: World Network Launches Chat Feature, Zora Set to Introduce Its Native Token, and Trump Ann…

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Sam Altman's blockchain project, World Network, has launched World Chat, a “mini-app” integrated into the World App wallet. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hints at future US Bitcoin reserve acquisition plans

Friday, March 7, 2025

Federal government considers expanding Bitcoin holdings without taxpayer funds; official discussions underway in Washington. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

NFT & Gaming - 🦁 Loaded Lions’s LION went live and was the top gainer on CoinGecko; Trump-owned company DTTM Oper…

Friday, March 7, 2025

Loaded Lions's LION token went live on the Cronos and Solana. Trump-owned company filed a trademark for a metaverse and NFT marketplace. Hamster Kombat introduced a Layer-2 blockchain on TON ͏ ͏ ͏