Note that there's no real reason lightning nodes *have* to have confidence in that - if a node routes your payment to the next hop, how they do it doesn't really matter. Allowing things like non-lightning "channels" (eg just a contractual agreement to settle up later between two mutually-trusting parties) would actually be quite compelling.
The reason lightning nodes *today* require proof-of-funds-locked is largely for DoS resistance, effectively rate-limiting flooding the global routing table with garbage, but such rate-limiting could be accomplished (albeit with a ton more complexity) via other means. Matt On 1/27/20 7:50 AM, Ugam Kamat wrote: > Hey Subhra – In order to have faith that the channel announced by the > nodes is actually locked on the Bitcoin mainchain we need to have the > outpoint (`txid` and `vout`) of the funding transaction. If we do not > verify that the funding transaction has been confirmed, nodes can cheat > us that a particular transaction is confirmed when it is not the case. > As a result we require that nodes announce this information along with > the public keys and the signatures of the public keys that was used to > lock the funding transaction. > > > > This information is broadcasted in the `channel_announcement` message in > the `short_channel_id` field which includes the block number, > transaction number and vout. Since Bitcoin does not allow confidential > transactions, we can query the blockchain and find out the channel > capacity even when the amounts are never explicitly mentioned. > > > > > > Ugam > > > > *From:* Lightning-dev <lightning-dev-boun...@lists.linuxfoundation.org> > *On Behalf Of *Subhra Mazumdar > *Sent:* Monday, January 27, 2020 12:45 PM > *To:* lightning-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org > *Subject:* [Lightning-dev] Not revealing the channel capacity during > opening of channel in lightning network > > > > Dear All, > > What can be the potential problem if a channel is opened > whereby the channel capacity is not revealed publicly but just a range > proof of the attribute (capacity >0 and capacity < value) is provided ? > Will it pose a problem during routing of transaction ? What are the pros > and cons ? > > I think that revealing channel capacity make the channels susceptible to > channel exhaustion attack or a particular node might be targeted for > node isolation attack ? > > > -- > > Yours sincerely, > Subhra Mazumdar. > > > _______________________________________________ > Lightning-dev mailing list > Lightning-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org > https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/lightning-dev > _______________________________________________ Lightning-dev mailing list Lightning-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/lightning-dev
