In 2016 researchers released a whitepaper titled “The Bitcoin Lightning Network”. Two years later, in 2018, the first lightning network payment was made. Now, in 2024 retailers and websites around the world accept lightning payments, and there are thousands of bitcoin locked into this nascent peer to peer payments network. How did this proposal go from a whitepaper to a working protocol with multiple implemenations in four different programming languages, the most robust specification process of any bitcoin protocol, and build to most decentralized and active payment network currently in the ecosystem? Join us as niftynei, and early lightning adopter and spec contributor to get a front-line view on the development of a multiparty protocol governance process and network launch.
Pre-Talk Readings: https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol12GrAy8yk&list=PLaRKlIqjjguBRlpyBXhJ9q7sw5HhIHLpJ
Stream Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te-q8oxW35I
Slides: Scaling Bitcoin - Google Slides