Happy (Financial) Independence Day to all the Lightning Node Runners!
⚡🌎🇺🇸
Now is an excellent time to create an offer on Magma. We're seeing large channels get purchased from a broad range of nodes.
Here's a standard 1 BTC offer to modify to get started:
https://amboss.space/magma/offer/create?side=ask
#lightning #lightningnetwork
THE LIGHTNING NETWORK IS WORKING ADMIRABLY TODAY
Thanks to the awesome feedback we received on the invoice decoder, we added optional client-side invoice decoding!
Client-side decoding enables higher privacy, but limits lightning address and LNURL decoding.
This is available on the homepage of amboss.space, not on a dedicated page, yet.
Nice.
#Bitcoin #sats #lightning
Here's what we can learn from Lightning Addresses. There's a lot of information packed into a lightning address, providing ample opportunity for innovation and improved operations.
Tools section is in development 💪
Right now, the decoder is a section on the amboss.space homepage.
The decoding is done server side and based off the open source decoders.
If it's useful, you can use our GraphQL API for fast responses.
It's based on this one, but includes lightning address, LNURL, and it interoperates with our explorer.
We don't store any requests from this. You can definitely run this yourself! Basic open source decoders are available on GitHub.
⚡We've added Lightning invoice decoder to Amboss Space!
Invoice decoders deliver insights about payment requests that can come in the form of an invoice, an LNURL, or a Lightning Address.
To demonstrate the insights you can derive, we've prepared a thread of wallet invoices!
Starting simple, here an invoice from BitcoinJungleCR, a custodial lightning wallet:
Similar setups include: zbd, walletofsatoshi , and Strike
This is a BOLT11 invoice where it pays to a single node destination. Routing Node Operators will use the Payee Pubkey information to discover new nodes to connect to so that the network can have a variety of routes to pay BTC Jungle CR reliably.
https://amboss.space/node/03797da684da0b6de8a813f9d7ebb0412c5d7504619b3fa5255861b991a7f86960
Next up in complexity, a BOLT11 invoice from @Breez_Tech, a self-custodial lightning wallet:
If you check the Payee Pubkey of the Breez invoice, you'll reach a page that says "Unable to find this node". This isn't a error; this reveals that @Breez_Tech is using "private" node destinations.
To help the lightning payment reach the destination, it will require Route Hints!
In the Routing Info is a Pubkey, revealing a well-connected 28 BTC capacity node that will convey the payment to the "private" node destination.
Services with similar setups include: MuunWallet (uses a swap service), ElectrumWallet (yes they do lightning!)
"Private node" here only means unannounced to the network (like not listed in the phone book), not a guarantee of privacy.
There are many reasons to use private nodes in practice and most of them are operational: load balancing, payment reliability, failover protection, etc.
Even more complex, we have @CashApp invoices, which include 2 separate paths to reach a private node destination. https://amboss.space/lightning-decoder?request=lnbc1pnxrdk6dqdgdshx6pqg9c8qpp59d8cvaf5209myfkn9wk67ywa5exyt230gjpkjs7dh0yxzczaqk4ssp5e8e6wehwurw4zdfs6lkj5s9my702vpxjs26zfyv3vmrw00x64k0q9qrsgqcqpcxqy8ayqrzjqv06k0m23t593pngl0jt7n9wznp64fqngvctz7vts8nq4tukvtljqz3rvvqq88sqqsqqqqqqqqqqqqqq9grzjqtsjy9p55gdceevp36fvdmrkxqvzfhy8ak2tgc5zgtjtra9xlaz97pmylyqqt0gqquqqqqqqqqqqqqqq9gwmef3kht3jvnnft2yqagtdr6qsp0mw00mcs334wmjakjxf7m0suy3dm0cjcr9vd03c500225tf4suxu9ufrsqrl2p3k748ctvlygm3cpcr888n
Instead of only one potential path to pay, there are now two which can be attempted. This allows one of the public nodes to undergo maintenance while the other remains online to ensure higher payment reliability.
Makes sense when you have 50 million potential users!
Okay now it gets crazy complex: @fedibtc Bravo includes not only two separate routing paths, but there are multiple hops in the second path!
Look how long the invoice string is! That is a lot of data to pack into an invoice, which can also make the invoices more difficult to scan as QR codes or be unable to fit into a tweet!
Setups like this one are fascinating, but each decision is a tradeoff.
In the 2-hop path, the first stop is @LQWDTech followed by "Henwen 🐷", which was also used in the 1-hop path.
This must make Henwen one of the "Gateways" into the ecash Federation.
https://amboss.space/node/0364913d18a19c671bb36dd04d6ad5be0fe8f2894314c36a9db3f03c2d414907e1
https://amboss.space/node/02f0c7b731ca40a285d7c12aa1c5c7c7caa4598d3d6d34904c3714cd0d47852640
Mind blower time. Let's talk about @AquaBitcoin invoices.
Aqua invoices only include a single route hint, but the route hint is to a private node!
The payee pubkey is a public node, @Boltzhq, which swaps between the @lightning network and @Liquid_BTC.
Boltz is using "magic routing hints" allowing Liquid to Liquid payments within LN.
https://docs.boltz.exchange/v/api/magic-routing-hints
We hope you learned a lot from this thread!
What else would you like to know about invoices?
What other insights can you gain from this tool?
Just because roads are built in tons of asphalt doesn't mean that tons are the relevant unit for the road's usage or its collective ability to move traffic.
Similarly, lightning channels are created in sats but the relevant metric for its settlement capability and economic utility is the same metric used for the pricing of goods, which is USD for direct comparison to other economic systems.
Bitcoin is not yet a unit of account and the settlement capacity is better measured in USD as an established unit of account.
Bitcoin is definitely a store of value and the next phase is a medium of exchange, but unit of account is still in the distant future.
NEW ATH FOR LIGHTNING NETWORK!
This makes lightning a more powerful and scalable settlement layer for #bitcoin.
Two factors have driven the Lightning Capacity higher:
1. Bitcoin-denominated growth in lightning infrastructure
2. Rising exchange value of bitcoin in USD terms
These folks don't have nostr profiles to tag, but they're still deserving of credit!
Payment reliability is the most important metric for the Lightning Network as a payment system.
We teamed up with @HelloStillmark to deliver research that leverages machine learning to bring enterprise payment reliability to the Lightning Network.
Our New Research: "Channel Balance Interpolation in the Lightning Network via Machine Learning" decimates the tired and risky approach of probing to find a reliable payment route.
Combining crowdsourced data and machine learning means reliable payments on LN with less spam.
We're applying this methodology to a new pathfinding-as-a-service feature that is showing extremely promising early results.
We're looking for exchanges, rewards programs, or play-to-earn with high outbound payment volume to put our pathfinding service to a real-world test.
To learn more about our research or to join us as part of our payment operations solution, be sure to visit: https://rpo.dev/pathfinding
This research would not be possible without our collaborators:
@HelloStillmark
@vsingh_5
@emaros96
And peer reviewers:
@renepickhardt
Dr. Christian Kummerle
@alexbosworth
Initial results are showing payment reliability increasing from 27% with native LND to 90% using pathfinding derived from predictions.
We're looking for folks to battle test it for real world payment reliability especially for high volume business applications. Link: rpo.dev/pathfinding
This research is about payment reliability, which has a broad range of applications.
You could apply this to risk management/compliance but that's a very small application compared to payment reliability as a while.
Payment reliability is the most important metric for the Lightning Network as a payment system.
We teamed up with @HelloStillmark to deliver research that leverages machine learning to bring enterprise payment reliability to the Lightning Network.
Our New Research: "Channel Balance Interpolation in the Lightning Network via Machine Learning" decimates the tired and risky approach of probing to find a reliable payment route.
Combining crowdsourced data and machine learning means reliable payments on LN with less spam.
We're applying this methodology to a new pathfinding-as-a-service feature that is showing extremely promising early results.
We're looking for exchanges, rewards programs, or play-to-earn with high outbound payment volume to put our pathfinding service to a real-world test.
To learn more about our research or to join us as part of our payment operations solution, be sure to visit: https://rpo.dev/pathfinding
This research would not be possible without our collaborators:
@HelloStillmark
@vsingh_5
@emaros96
And peer reviewers:
@renepickhardt
Dr. Christian Kummerle
@alexbosworth