HomeCryptoBitcoinLightning Network: a bug in the Bitcoin second layer

Lightning Network: a bug in the Bitcoin second layer

An Australian developer has found a security bug within the Bitcoin Lightning Network that could lead users to lose their funds

LN is a payment protocol designed to facilitate transactions. These transactions are recorded offchain so as to drastically reduce the cost of fees while ensuring an almost instantaneous transfer compared to traditional onchain transactions. The aim is to make the Bitcoin network more scalable.

Bitcoin: a bug in the Lightning Network

The existence of the bug has been revealed on Twitter; it affects several projects.

All the details about it will be revealed on September 27th in order to allow everyone to update the software without revealing the particulars of the bug that could be exploited by the malicious.

The releases involved are the following:

CVE-2019-12998 c-lightning < 0.7.1

CVE-2019-12999 lnd <0.7

CVE-2019-13000 eclair <=0.3

Lightning Network, on the rise since the beginning of the year

As reported by CoinShares, Lightning Network has reached record volumes in its last year of activity. The network has recorded an increase in nodes of over 195% and a staggering +798% in the capacity reached by the network.

lightning network bug

In recent months, however, there has been a decline in capacity, which fell from 1100 BTC in May to the current 844. Moreover, LNBIG, which manages almost 40% of the LN network, is unable to generate profits because the number of daily transactions is too low.

In addition, Dogecoin (DOGE) has recently been found to be much more widely used than Lightning Network.

The truth is that this technology is not yet mature but many believe that it is fundamental for the future of Bitcoin. Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of Blockstream, thinks that LN will play a key role in the adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment on a global scale.

To encourage the development of Bitcoin Lightning Network, Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the most famous people in the cryptocurrency world, known for his educational videos on the functioning of bitcoin and the blockchain, has decided to publish a book entitled “Mastering Lightning Network”.

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