On their blog, the Lightning developers describe what Carol's future will look like when she is using the Lightning Network. In the end, it's almost as easy as using Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash. Except that much more happens below the surface, of which Carol does not know - and that her transactions do not burden the blockchain.
Carol lives in a "not too distant future," in which the Lightning Network has become the common means of payment. The Lightning developers describe one day in their lives how the Lightning user experience can look in the future. This is not yet so attractive or partially controversial. Therefore, the blog post is extremely interesting because it shows how one of Lightning's biggest problems can be solved.
If you do not know what the Lightning Network is, it's a network of payment channels that connect in a way that allows you to transfer Bitcoins across channels. Unlike the natural Bitcoin transactions, Lightning transactions never hit the blockchain and therefore do not need to be received, checked, stored and distributed by all nodes in the network. Lightning scales better than Bitcoin itself, without limiting the decentralization of Bitcoin. It's a bit like heating with solar thermal instead of wood.
So far, the Lightning Network suffers from a lack of user experience, even if the Eclair wallet for Android is a good step in the right direction. The post on the Lightning Labs blog now shows how Carol will experience Lightning in the future, when the infrastructure has evolved as the developers imagine:
Carol first downloads a Lightning app for her smartphone. The blog writes that she notes a seed of 24 words and keeps it in a safe place, but I'm sure this will be optional. If you save only 20 to 100 euros on it, you can save that too.
Carol then sends some Bitcoins from the exchange to her app, as usual, as if it were a normal wallet. The Lightning developers write that this takes about an hour. Whether they write this because a Lightning app needs six acknowledgments to form a channel, or because the Lightning developers like to chatter on-chain transactions, I do not know.
Then a system called autopilot takes Carol's Bitcoins and forms five payment channels with them. This again takes about an hour, but is only necessary at the first set up.
Now Carol goes into the shopping center and buys socks made of alpaca wool. The seller shows her a QR code on his tablet, Alice scans it with the Lightning wallet, and clicks Submit. The payment arrived immediately, the fees were ultra-low.
In the evening, Carol buys an in-game item for an online game ("World of Wowcraft"). A Lightning money order pops up, Carol confirms, and the payment is done. Obvious and almost free.
Then Carol wants to charge her Lightning app wallet. Since her favorite exchange also supports Lightning, she only has to file a payment request with the amount of Bitcoins to be received and her ID in the Lightning Network. Carol then sends this to the exchange, which then sends Bitcoins to her app wallet via Lightning. Immediately and almost without fees.
All this sounds simple, but when you look under the hood, you discover a lot of technology that Carol does not know about. The Lightning developers naming them:
- Payment Channels by which she sends the Bitcoins,
- Smart contracts that ensure that you can not be cheated,
- Routing Nodes that bring the transaction to Carol's destination,
- Watchtowers, who keep Carol from being cheated (when she goes offline),
- Splicing, a feature that allows you to pay onchain from a channel without closing the channel, and
- Atomic Multipath Payments, which split larger amounts into smaller ones in order to better route them through the network.
All these technologies, the blog explains, need not be familiar to Carol as much as she needs to understand TCP / IP to use the Internet.
In a way, everything in the post makes sense. If everyone joins in and makes small detours, Lightning can be made user-friendly. But in a way, it makes no sense at all. Because in the long run Carol, in which Lightning works perfectly, has just about the same user experience that she can have today with any cryptocurrency except Bitcoin, just a little more cumbersome. For Carol as a user, nothing will change for the better. Lightning is a little bit like a new Metallica album - you're happy when songs are "almost as good as they used to be".
The Lightning developers point out that onchain transactions are so expensive and slow. However, all currencies except Bitcoin have very low fees, and unconfirmed transactions are perfectly fine in all presented payment examples (and probably even faster than Lightning transactions). Considering that the Lightning-Wallet needs only six transactions to get started (one for charging, five for the payment channels), and one to two hours to get it off the ground, it's likely to be significant for the user become more expensive and slower.
In addition, there are a few minor inconveniences compared to the normal use of Bitcoin: With the backup by a Seed Lightning can only reconstruct the initial transaction that opens the channel, but not the course of the channel, and the withdrawal of coins from an exchange seems to be a little more complicated, as it first requires an action from the receiving wallet. Also, you have to trust a watchtower, at least a bit.
Of course, knowing that Lightning can have similar ease of use as Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash itself is good enough. But do not trust that it will be enough to get the offchain network going. This probably requires the idealism of managing the Bitcoin blockchain in a sustainable manner, and at the same time accepting altruistic disadvantages in the user experience. Similar to the energy transition.
Here you can read the "Lightning User Experience: A Day in the Life of Carol" blog post!
Wanchain intends to develop nothing less than an all-in-one solution for the entire financial crypto sphere. The aim of the project is to provide a distributed financial structure in a "decentralized future", using a universal protocol that covers all levels of the blockchain. Simply put, Wanchain seeks to create a decentralized bank.
Wanchain (WAN) wants to revolutionize the digital asset economy, which means nothing less than the entire cryptocurrency sphere. One of the biggest problems of today's crypto sphere is that different cryptocurrencies can not be swapped directly (by atomic swap).
This is very similar to the time when there was no internet and computers could communicate only with other computers within their LAN network and not with all computers in the world. The breakthrough of the Internet was not successful until all computers in the world could be connected.
The trading of cryptocurrencies currently has to be handled via central exchanges, such as Binance, Bitfinex, Bittrex and so on. Decentralized exchanges are still at a very early stage of development and account for only a fraction of the total trading volume of cryptocurrencies.
If blockchains could communicate with each other, it would be an outstanding innovation and the solution to a huge problem. Various blockchains could communicate with one another without using centralized instances (the exchanges).
Wanchain tries to solve this problem. Accordingly, since the ICO of Wanchain there has also been a huge hype surrounding the project.
If you look into the whitepaper and look for the main features that Wanchain would like to offer or already offers, then you will be astonished:
- Smart Contracts: Since Wanchain is a fork of Ethereum, it has taken over this functionality
- Cross chain communications: cross chain smart contracts, cross chain DApps
- Private transactions through ring signatures (like Monero)
- One-time address
- A decentralized exchange market
- ICO platform
- Asset management tool
The Wanchain technology
Let's take a look at the features in detail. Probably the most innovative feature is the Cross-Chain Communication Protocol, which enables the communication and thus the exchange between the WAN-blockchain and other blockchains.
The protocol consists of three components that are implemented using smart contracts and enable communication with the WAN blockchain. By doing so, Wanchain intends to address the problem of value transfers between different ledgers by establishing connections between the nodes of various blockchains and providing a framework for financial applications based on digital currencies and digital assets.
The financial infrastructure should therefore be characterized by three main features:
- Cross-Chain
- Privacy Protection
- Smart Contracts
Everything united in one project. Also unique are the Blockchain-comprehensive Smart Contracts, which are also anonymous (like Monero).
Wanchain also focuses on privacy by using Monero privacy features, ring signatures, and one-time addresses. The "ring signatures" divide the transaction into multiple blocks, making tracking difficult.
In addition, wrong addresses are created that participate in this "ring". A traceability of which wallet to which wallet the transaction was made is thus (almost) excluded. The one-time addresses mean that a new address is generated for each transaction, making tracking even more difficult.
A proof-of-stake algorithm is used to verify transactions. Wanchain uses three types of masternodes: Cross-Chain Transaction Proof Nodes (Vouchers), Locked Account Management Nodes (Storemen) and General Verification Nodes (Validators).
As Wanchain favors Ethereum and shares the codebase with Ethereum, the question of scalability arises. Wanchain says it sees scalability and performance as a major challenge for the industry as a whole. That's why Wanchain, together with other projects, especially the Ethereum community, wants to seek solutions.
It is also noteworthy that Wanchain can show a working product and a Mainnet. Wanchain 1.0 is live with the Explorer, Wallet, WAN, Smart Contract functionality and privacy features.
Who is behind Wanchain?
Jack Lu is the founder of Wanchain. He founded Factom, a cryptocurrency that is, after all, in the top 100 of all cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, and Wanglu Tech, a company that produces blockchain application software.
Especially for Wanchain, Lu founded the Wanchain Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Singapore and Austin, Texas. President of the foundation is Dustin Byington, who has made a name for himself in the crypto world with the founding of Bitcoin College, Satoshi Talent and co-founding Tendermint.
The cryptocurrency WAN
Wanchain is not only a cross-chain platform capable of performing cross-transaction transactions, but is also a blockchain network that can exist independently. Central to this is the Wanchan Coin - WAN.
The WAN ICO sold 107 million tokens totaling 210 million (Total Supply). A total of 120,000 ETH could be taken. Revenues were split as follows: 10% Infrastructure, 10% Daily Operations, 10% Marketing, 10% Community Development and 60% for Research and Development.
The price of a WAN under the ICO was $ 0.34. When the WAN Coin first traded on an exchange at the end of March, the currency started at over $ 3, up tenfold the ICO selling price. However, after dropping slightly for the course in April, the WAN recovered quickly. On May 3, 2018, the WAN price exceeded the $ 9 mark for the first time.
Blockchain Interoperability Alliance
Together with ICON and AION, Wanchain founded the "Blockchain Interoperability Alliance". The alliance pursues the common goal of promoting interconnectivity between isolated blockchain networks. The aim is to promote cooperation and research on interchain transactions and communications, and to develop common industry standards.
In the following video, all projects are presented individually and the goals of the alliance are presented.
Wanchain Roadmap
As can be seen from the roadmap, Wanchain has already made its first steps in 2016. Since January Wanchain 1.0 runs in Mainnet. Wanchain 2.0 will be released this summer with PoS, Ethereum cross-chain functionality and a multi-coin wallet. By the end of 2018, version 3.0 is planned, in which Bitcoin will be integrated into the project. By the end of 2019, even "Privacy Coins" will be integrated.
Critical consideration
The project was and still is extremely hyped. In fact, if Wanchain can live up to its promises, WAN seems to be a very interesting project that could create a fully self-sufficient financial ecosystem for digital currencies and other digital assets. In particular, features such as the anonymous Smart Contracts and the Cross-Chain Communication Protocol are very innovative.
In my opinion, however, it is questionable whether Wanchain can actually assert itself in full. For example, OmiseGo has a similar approach on the Ethereum platform with its Unbank the Bank philosophy. There are also several decentralized exchanges in development on the NEO platform, and the first one is already live (Switcheo), which, for example, wants to implement token swaps with ERC20 tokens.
On the other hand, Wanchain offers a complete package, which includes some unique features. It remains exciting to see how well Wanchain develops in the near future.
Video Source:
Image Sources:
- Article headers created by myself
- https://blog.lightning.engineering
- https://wanchain.org/
Have a nice day!
LOVE&LIGHT
I am very excited about Wanchain. Interoperability looks like the next big thing in blockchain maybe even more important than DEXs. My only concern about Wanchain is they could be trying to do too much at once. However, this management team with large scale engineering talent may very well make Wan into a financial banking like platform of the future.
With Bitcoin Lightening Network I am very skeptical its going to work like Lightening Labs says it will. Firstly, they have to solve the computer science problem of routing that has never been done before. IDK I just have a lot of questions what is going to make users adopt it when other blockchains currently offer fast, cheap transactions on chain? Its already proven that blocksizes up to 400MB can be implemented with special node hardware.
I really like how Ethereum is approaching scaling, which is a multi-solution approach - Casper, Plasma, Sharding, and there's more. In this way users and developers can choose what suits them better. On-chain scaling is the focus with off-chain solution being just an option. In Bitcoin the developers are trying force everyone off-chain with Lightening that's not even operational yet.
Ethereum: First Casper version is here Danny Ryan, Developer of Casper FFG, has released a first release of the code on Github on May 8th. This is version 0.1.0. This should provide a clearer guideline and give clients and external auditors the ability to track the contract and changes more easily.
For Wanchain I have big hopes got into it at $ 2.90 back in March thanks to my brother he told me about WAN and to check it out. I like there ideas and as you say interoperability looks like the next big thing in blockchain technology.
With Lightning I agree with you and IDK as well what will happen with it after it's going live I guess time will tell.
Thanks for your comment and input bro have a nice day :)
Yes this is when I got in to Wan too. Every bear market is a blessing :-). If they would have launched trading in a hype cycle it would have probably traded past $10 already. I am open minded with Bitcoin Lightening Network so I am not going to write it off but I am skeptical how effective is it really going to be. Users just want fast, cheap and secure transactions. The most important thing is convenience/user friendly. If they can do it better with LN let's see, so far it looks way to complicated with a lot of issues to be ironed out before the average Crypto user will touch it, much less an average person.
Is it not similar to how BitTorrent works? I'd say that's pretty reliable.
It's more like a mesh network since payments route from hub to hub via channels. The issue I see its overly complicated to be used any time soon for a mass Bitcoin scaling solution. Those payments channels will need to build up a lot of liquidity to route properly. The other person would also need to have a lightening wallet. At this time you'll need to run your own LN node to have a LN wallet. Watch towers will also be needed for hire and several other services to be secure. I just know from running businesses and investing into tech space for quite some time its the most simplistic ideas that work the best.
Some cash for you
Lightning network will surely bring crypto into the next level! It will boost-up the transaction speed with cheaper fee. Currently, every block processed only 7 txn per sec but when lightning network will be implemented, it can handle multiple txns and the load of blockchain will be lesser.
Yes, its happening already.
There have been documented transactions being done for 1 satoshi -- sending just 1 satoshi -- 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin.
Its knocked out the legs from Very Wrong Ver's arguments, and all the BCashers are in fits about it.
Here's a nice explorer so you can see all of the nodes and how it looks right now -- https://graph.lndexplorer.com/
It reminds me of how the internet grew, and it will continue to advance in the same manner.
great project
Sweet post dude
Thanks dude ;)
Interesting stuff! Lightning networks could be the game changer. But once one coin starts being heavily adopted for payments it does bring the question why do we need all the other coins. The end of the year could start to see lots of consolidation.
Hi @danyelk - Just so you know, someone in the steem.chat app is using your username to approach people (including me), asking them to send money to @blocktrades without explanation. I have notified the admin of the chat app - @followbtcnews.
Damn thank you for letting me know and for notifying to the admin. To many scammer out there I hope the admin will do something about this person.
Thanks again and have a nice day.
You are welcome. I suggest talking with @followbtcnews about getting control of the login to the danyelk account in steem.chat ;)
Okay I will do that.
Edit okay done thanks again.
Great post. There's a lot of information here. I am really excited about the future. This is a good time to be alive.
nice post
great post
‘Carol then sends some Bitcoins from the exchange to her app, as usual, as if it were a normal wallet’
Why does Carol seem to store her btc on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet like any sensible person? She doesn’t sound too smart!
Dude really?
If you like to know ask the lightning developers because Carol is there story.
Great article! really down to earth, real case scenario.
Would you allow me to do the Spanish translation as to reach as many people as possible?
(It is not my intention to take any of your stake, I would publish next week and share the earning if you wish to)
Thanks and keep the great quality of your postings.
Thank you!
If you like do it but please let the people know that you translated my post and you don't need to share your earning with me.
Have a nice day and send me a link to your post when it's done :)
Sure thing. Thanks
Your welcome buddy :)
Upvoted and resteemed.. @danyelk Help me, Help BRD give away some free money by sharing this !!! https://steemit.com/crypto-news/@breadapp/the-final-week-of-the-brd-airdrop-is-here
Thanks for this article @danyelk! Good explanation of the use case with Carol! :)
Your welcome buddy :)
very good post
Please Stop - @muzammil381
You just said "good post","very good post" and in your your last 100 comments you used 34 phrases considered to be spam and you made this exact same comment 2 times. You've received 21 flags and you may see more on comments like these. These comments are the reason why your Steem Sincerity API classification scores are Spam: 69.20% and Bot: 7.80%
Please stop making comments like this and read the ways to avoid @pleasestop and earn the support of the community.
@muzammil381 you're on the @abusereports naughty list!
If you do not stop, your account will be rendered invisible on Steemit. Bad Steemian! Bad!
Hello and sorry for posting here my concern because this is the only way I know that my fellow steemir can see me! I just wanted to ask only I know your an expert now here because im only new here..regarding to my estimated account value is not splitting to steem dollars but only to steem power only can have because i know I start with 100% power up when I post any not the 50/50..so my ask how can I split now this? this is my screenshot. Thank you!!!
I hope anybody can help me for this thank you!!!!!
You can only power up Steem to get SP the SBD you have to buy on an exchange and you get SBD as post payout hope it helps :)
thank you so much this is big help.!
Your welcome :)
I thought I had a decent grasp of how the Lightning Network worked, but this post made me realize that I knew next to nothing about what really goes on in the background. Thanks for opening my eyes. Very detailed and informative. You definitely do your research, and I appreciate that. Thanks again.
Your welcome I am glad my post helped you to opening your eyes.
Wanchain is a great petential coin. It based on blockchain. That is why super secured,so reliable and it will go far.
Change is always at the corner. We're not sure about it yet until we get there.
Thanks so much for this article @ danyelk...I think it's an eye opener.
Your welcome :)
excellent initiative
Thank you very much for your words, of course it would be great to be able to help us: D from now on I follow you and I support you, you are great
The way that many of these cryptocurrency projects are forming a ecosystem is really beginning to streamline adoption. Crypto really is a cypher rich problem solving environment.
Thanks for this article,nice .love this article @danyelk.
Good explanation of the use case with Carol! :) @danyelk.
congratulations you've found a good network that is ** network lightning **
good post
@danyelk, that's really amazing information by you.
thats amazing . mind blowing thinking
Guys, if you want to have a look and get some information in a good ICO that will start in short period of time, I can suggest you RAWG.
The ICO site is this one: https://token.rawg.io/.
It's a video game discovery platform that converts your skills into goods and services.
You can earn tokens by playing your favorite games. The site is already working, with more than 50,000 games in the database and new games are getting added every day.
This is the site: https://rawg.io/
Quite good looking, don't you think?
Have a look. I hope this information is helpful.
you can also browse my beautiful post mine :))))
Really you that's great man.
I appreciate your blockhain.
Yea... I love blockhain too :p
Crypto wizard. What do you think of electroneums pattent for instant payments? POS merchants will likely love that. Thoughts?
Excelente articulo !! se necesitan hoy por hoy demasiada informacion financiera en pro de nuestra economia, estare proximo a lanzar un blog sobre lo que me parece un tema interesante ! El no uso del bot en la cripto-exchange, su uso indebido repercutiendo en la disminucion del porcentaje y de los metodos mas adecuados para la extraccion de divisas...Gracias 100% interesante.
Carol might be hit by lightning if she's that close haha!
You got a 14.39% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @danyelk!
Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!
I have your vote, the funds how? @zuhrafriska
Blockhain fantastis
It will take seven days until you receive a fund. Patience...
Thank you very much for sharing. Like his article very useful. 👍👍
love you bro for upload a good post really this is helpful post you are really good like you boss
Thanks for this article @danyelk
Great post, it helped me relate more to bitcoin, thanks
That's what social networks are for brother :) Relating... to bitcoin
would you like to View my article too, It's very informative
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rizwana/wanna-earn-money-on-steemit-here-are-the-top-tips-to-earn-on-steemit-via-blogging
Dude I just checked out your post and it's only images you didn't write anything that's not a good post you need to keep improving ;)
Incredible will move the new digital economy, the master's continued success
Good post
You have a captivating way of drawing readers into your article. I never had the intention of reading the whole article. At a point, I just had to consciously stop myself from reading further. I'll admit that you write well.
You have a captivating way of drawing readers into your article. I never had the intention of reading the whole article. At a point, I just had to consciously stop myself from reading further. I'll admit that you write well.
You have a captivating way of drawing readers into your article. I never had the intention of reading the whole article. At a point, I just had to consciously stop myself from reading further. I'll admit that you write well.
You have a captivating way of drawing readers into your article. I never had the intention of reading the whole article. At a point, I just had to consciously stop myself from reading further. I'll admit that you write well.
You have a captivating way of drawing readers into your article. I never had the intention of reading the whole article. At a point, I just had to consciously stop myself from reading further. I'll admit that you write well.
wanchain is going nuts!
Nice post bro