Antoine Riard, who left the Lightning Network in October, believes the Lightning Network is also at risk of becoming increasingly centralized and vulnerable to single points of failure and censorship risks.
Developers working on Bitcoin’s Layer 2 Lightning Network have become less focused on security and more focused on generating cash flow for investors, a former Lightning Network developer believes.
Bitcoin Core developer and security researcher Antoine Riard made headlines last month after leaving the Lightning ecosystem over concerns about a new attack vector called "replacement loops," which attackers could potentially exploit. Steal funds by targeting payment channels.
At the time, Riard said that the new attack put Lighting in a "dangerous position," although other Bitcoin developers such as "Machine98" said that such an attack would be difficult to carry out in the first place.
Riard told reporters that he is now working on the Bitcoin base layer to solve this problem and urged Lightning Network developers to follow suit:
“They need to wake up, stop sleepwalking, and get to the whiteboard and work with other developers at the base layer to design a strong and sustainable fix to keep the Lightning Network centralized and open in the long term.”
Riard also claims that in an effort to please venture capitalists, many Lightning Network-focused companies are undermining the Lightning Network’s mission and security incentives:
"The sad truth is that most of them work for venture-funded entities or commercial entities with the same low time preference, which causes long-term damage to the end user."
Riard said it was a classic example of the "tragedy of the commons", where individuals and entities with access to public resources act in their own interests and deplete them.
Decentralization seems to be a trade-off that these venture-backed Lightning companies are willing to make, and it’s Riard’s main concern.
“Centralized systems are great in terms of efficiency, but they also suffer from systemic single points of failure and low user review costs, which are fundamental risks that Bitcoin enthusiasts may want to hedge against.”
"I'm not sure this is an interesting future for Lightning," Riard said. In fact, after leaving the Lightning ecosystem on October 20, he wanted no part of it:
“I have no wish to be associated with being responsible for the security of the Lightning Network and the ~5,300 BTC exposed here. There is little that I and others can do to stop the bleeding without compromising the Lightning Network’s core values of being censorship-resistant and permissionless.”
The Lightning Network is a second-layer solution built on the Bitcoin blockchain. It aims to improve Bitcoin’s scalability and efficiency.
Through the Lightning Network, users can open payment channels, conduct multiple transactions off-chain, and settle the final results on the Bitcoin blockchain. Substitution loop attacks are a new type of attack that allow attackers to exploit inconsistencies between various mempools to steal funds from channel participants.
We reached out to Lightning Labs and other companies in the lighting ecosystem but did not receive a response.
However, despite the security concerns and possible trend toward centralization, Riard explained that the Lightning Network has not been subject to as many attacks as Ethereum Layer 2 because Lightning users typically only store small amounts in their wallets at any given time. funds.
According to DeFiLlama, a total of $194.1 million in BTC is locked in the Lightning Network.
