CKB version 'Lightning Network' Fiber Network: The third path of Bitcoin programmability expansion 🧙♂️
The industry cycle resonates with the macro financial cycle, and the crypto industry is in a state of overall confusion similar to that of 2019. Currently, not only is liquidity exhausted, but the narratives seem to be drying up as well. The market is not only disinterested in VC narratives but also weary of the anti-VC meme narratives.
Just as people return to Plato for solutions in every philosophical crisis, when the crypto industry is in crisis, we also need to return to Bitcoin, to Satoshi Nakamoto.
As Cipher, the founder of the CKB ecosystem RGB++ protocol, elaborated in his latest blog, the crypto industry needs to reflect on the path dependence of Ethereum's 'on-chain computation', returning to P2P economics, letting computation be off-chain and validation be on-chain.
Therefore, in choosing Bitcoin programmability extension solutions, CKB respects the Bitcoin community's consensus of 'verification over computation' and has not replicated Ethereum's Rollup scheme and Restaking + AVS scheme, but instead pays tribute to the Bitcoin Lightning Network by launching the CKB version of the Lightning Network, Fiber Network (abbreviated as CFN).
CFN's official description is based on the next-generation public Lightning Network composed of CKB and off-chain channels. The technology stack it actually employs mainly includes: CKB's Cell (a Turing-complete eUTXO), RGB++'s isomorphic binding and Leap no-bridge cross-chain, Bitcoin script's HTLC (hash time lock) and Lightning Network's state channel, etc.
A standard CFN payment channel lifecycle is as follows:
Open channel - Lock assets - Create HTLC - Update status - Validate transaction - Transaction completed - Close channel - Submit final state
CFN payment channel lifecycle
Similar to the Bitcoin Lightning Network, CFN channels can remain active indefinitely. Multiple active channels can form an off-chain asset payment/clearing network through a 'multi-hop' mechanism.
However, CFN is not a 100% copy of the Lightning Network. Compared to the Lightning Network, CFN has the following key new features:
--Multi-asset support: No longer limited to a single currency, paving the way for complex cross-chain financial applications.
--Programmability: Turing-complete smart contracts based on CKB support more complex condition execution and business logic.
--Cross-chain interoperability: Native design supports interaction with other UTXO chains (such as BTC) via the Lightning Network.
--More flexible state management: Thanks to the CKB's Cell model, CFN can manage channel states more efficiently.
It is particularly worth mentioning that CFN has reserved space for future upgrades to more advanced payment channel technologies (like PTLC). This forward-looking design gives CFN a technological advantage in evolution.
Due to the technical isomorphism between CFN and the Bitcoin Lightning Network (e.g., the same hash algorithm and time-lock script), there is a natural foundation for achieving cross-chain atomic swaps between the two.
The atomic cross-chain swap process between CFN and the Lightning Network
Let's understand this process through a concrete example:
--Alice (CKB side) wants to send Bob (BTC side) 100 CKB equivalent to BTC
--Bob generates a secret S and gives its hash H(S) to Alice
--Alice creates HTLC on CFN, locking 100 CKB with the condition of providing the correct S
--At the same time, the corresponding HTLC is also created on the BTC Lightning Network to lock the equivalent BTC
--Bob reveals S to claim BTC, and S is also made public
--Alice claims 100 CKB on CFN using the public S
The atomic cross-chain swap between CFN and the Lightning Network is not limited to native assets of BTC and CKB but also supports RGB++ assets and Taproot assets, such as the first meme coin Seal in the ecosystem and the stablecoin RUSD of the Bitcoin ecosystem stablecoin protocol stable++.
CFN provides a fast and low-cost transfer channel for RGB++ assets. Users can quickly trade various RGB++ assets on CFN without settling on the CKB main chain each time.
At the same time, RGB++ provides CFN with a rich variety of asset types. This greatly expands the application scenarios of CFN, making it no longer limited to simple value transfer.
The combination of the two can achieve 'Bitcoin-level security + Ethereum-level functionality + Lightning Network-level speed'. This is a highly competitive combination.
Regarding the three major business models of asset issuance, lending, and trading in the crypto industry, the potential application scenarios of CFN, besides cross-chain payments, include:
--Cross-chain liquidity mining: Users providing cross-chain liquidity for assets supported by CFN can earn rewards, stimulating the issuance and trading of new assets, for example, building a meme coin launch platform based on CFN in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
--Atomic cross-chain lending: Users can lock assets on the BTC network and borrow corresponding value stablecoins on the CKB network, without trusting third parties throughout the process;
--Cross-chain DEX: CFN can be used to build a decentralized exchange that supports fast and low-cost trading of BTC, CKB, and various RGB++ assets.
If the above potential scenarios can ultimately be realized, the Bitcoin ecosystem can leverage CFN's cross-chain atomic swap capability to achieve native stablecoins, native lending, native DEX, and other DeFi applications. Therefore, CFN is not just a CKB version of the Lightning Network but a globally significant programmable extension solution in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
CFN is about to launch its testnet, and we can observe its future development through the following indicators:
--The point in time when successful interoperability with the BTC Lightning Network is achieved;
--The growth curve of cross-chain transaction volume after the mainnet launch;
--The quantity and quality of cross-chain DApps developed based on CFN;
--The degree of adoption of RGB++ assets on CFN.
In summary, among many Bitcoin programmability extension solutions including Babylon, Merlin, BoB, and Mezo, CFN stands out uniquely. It chooses to innovate on the classic paradigm of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, thus possessing strong consensus of Bitcoin's native nature and high scalability, with the potential to surpass competitors in the future infrastructure competition of BTCFi and ultimately win.
