Lightning Network Curriculum

What Is This?

While planning the Chaincode Residency, we put considerable effort into finding the best resources and creating a curriculum around Lightning protocol development.

Lightning is still a nascent technology, and so we expect maintenance of this document to be an ongoing task. We could use your help. Please consider opening a pull-request to keep this document relevant.

There are three portions to this curriculum:

1. Study Groups designed to provide bite-sized grouped subjects that you can either complete bookclub style or alone.
2. Seminar Videos recorded during the Summer 2019 Chaincode Residency.
3. Lightning Syllabus a collection of resources grouped by subjects.

Seminar Videos

Session	Topic	Link
How pieces fit together	Overall picture	https://youtu.be/krux2v0jt4E
How pieces fit together	Update	https://youtu.be/SoFlRCNdqDg
How pieces fit together	Transfer	https://youtu.be/CGE8I8L7BAc
How pieces fit together	Multihop	https://youtu.be/P7I-C0_sijg
How pieces fit together	And the others that are worth mentioning but not exploring (base and transport)	https://youtu.be/wyri7cc83kQ
Update layer	Trampoline Payments	https://youtu.be/1WmIjHrjFsg
Update layer	Eltoo and the Far Future	https://youtu.be/3ZjymCOmn_A
Onion Routing	Atomic multi-path payments (AMP)	https://youtu.be/Og4TGERPZMY
Onion Routing	Keysend (formally known as spontaneous payments)	https://youtu.be/zaBY9_eEQWE
Update layer - limitations	Fee management	https://youtu.be/r8S3iELg9_U
Onion Routing	Deep Dive	https://youtu.be/D4kX0gR-H0Y
Update layer - limitations	Incentive problems in the network	https://youtu.be/lByQUr7zPr0
Onion Routing- limitations	Routing failures	https://youtu.be/z5vEyvc2vrE
Update layer	Gossip Protocol/Path Finding	https://youtu.be/MeEFUaRnMak
Limitations	Payment UX	https://youtu.be/rVgAHMgMCzk
Limitations	Limitations of lightweight clients	https://youtu.be/ULVItljEiFE
Limitations	Running Lightning in Production	https://youtu.be/fhmeNWczeUg
Limitations	Failure modes in action	https://github.com/sstone/ln-in-action
	Submarine swaps/ Loops	https://youtu.be/qixhNBIHDyE
Attack vectors	Attack vector intro	https://youtu.be/R5cSrftd8nc
Privacy	Gossip protocol and privacy/How much do watchtowers need to know?/ Minimizing what is broadcasted to the base layer	https://gist.github.com/adamjonas/8da156886ffa414541eaa43c0c5074ca
Privacy	Channel probing attack for channel balance	https://youtu.be/A7rp7bLbZoo, https://github.com/wbobeirne/channel-probing-attack
1.1 and the far future	Network Topology creation/maintenance	https://youtu.be/N7rlHCnaBf8
1.1 and the far future	Splicing	https://youtu.be/ZzSveBMtUGI
1.1 and the far future	Multi-party channels/Channel factories	https://youtu.be/PUDWGH_MvmQ
1.1 and the far future	Rendezvous Routing	https://youtu.be/Ms2WwRzBdkM
1.1 and the far future	Dual funded channels	https://youtu.be/5wQUMtgsnPs

Lightning Syllabus

Subjects	Topics	Sub-topics	Sources
What is Lightning?			The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments, What is the Lightning Network and how can it help Bitcoin scale?, The Lightning Network Evolving Bitcoin into a layered system, Understanding the Lightning Network, Part 1: Building a Bidirectional Bitcoin Payment Channel, Understanding the Lightning Network, Part 2: Creating the Network, Understanding the Lightning Network, Part 3: Completing the Puzzle and Closing the Channel, Reaching The Ground With Lightning, Scaling Bitcoin to Billions of Transactions Per Day, 2015, Lightning Network Deep Dive with Laolu "Roasbeef" Osuntokun, The #Bitcoin #Lightning Spec, Lightning Network Glossary
What is Lightning?	Introduction	Lightning Layers	How the Lightning Layers Fit Together, A Lightning Application Design Perspective
What is Lightning?	Introduction	History of LN	History of the Lightning Network, The Future of Bitcoin: What Lightning Could Look Like, The History of Lightning: From Brainstorm to Beta
What is Lightning?	Lightning ≈ Bitcoin		Lightning ≈ Bitcoin
What is Lightning?	Lightning ≈ Bitcoin	Revisting tx malleability	SF Bitcoin Devs Seminar: Transaction Malleability: Threats and Solutions
Transfer	Payment channel	General concept	Payment Channel
Transfer	Payment channel	Public channel	Do the channel balances get publicly announced in real-time on Lightning Network?, The open_channel Message
Transfer	Payment channel	Private channel	Exploring Lightning Network Routing
Transfer	Payment channel	Channel balance (local/remote)
Transfer	Payment channel	Exhausted channels
Transfer	Payment channel	Channel reserve	Rationale
Transfer	Transactions	BOLT	BOLT #3: Bitcoin Transaction and Script Formats
Transfer	Transactions	Funding Transaction	Funding Transactions as a Generalized Design Pattern for Offchain Protocols, Funding Transaction Output, The funding_created Message
Transfer	Transactions	Commitment Transaction	Commitment transactions, Commitment Transaction
Transfer	Transactions	Closing Transaction	Closing a Channel in Lighting Network, Closing Transaction
Transfer	Transactions	Penalty Transaction	Lightning Network ‘Penalty Scenario’ Works in Old State Channel Incident, Revoked Transaction Close Handling
Transfer	Transactions	Mutual Close	Distinguishing mutual and unilateral channel closing in the Bitcoin blockchain, Mutual Close Handling
Transfer	Transactions	Unilateral Close	Unilateral Close Handling: Local Commitment Transaction
Transfer	Transactions	Fee negotiation	BOLT #2: Peer Protocol for Channel Management
Transfer	HTLC	Overview	What Are Hashed Timelock Contracts (HTLCs)? Application In Lightning Network & Payment Channels,Lightning Networks Part II: Hashed Timelock Contracts (HTLCs)
Transfer	HTLC	Hashlock	HTLC implementation Bitcoin Core
Transfer	HTLC	Timelocks	Bitcoin’s Time Locks, Timelock,Bitcoin Timelocks in a nutshell
Transfer	HTLC	Revocation Key	Lightning Networks Part I: Revocable Transactions
Transfer	HTLC	Relative Locktime/CLTV	BIP 65
Transfer	HTLC	Hash Pre-image	What is a hash pre-image as it is used for the breach remedy?,Offered HTLC Outputs
Transfer	HTLC	payment basepoint/revocation basepoint	Key Derivation
Transfer	HTLC	Per-commit secret/Commitment number	Key Derivation
Transfer	HTLC	HTLC fulfillment/failure	Removing an HTLC: update_fulfill_htlc, update_fail_htlc, and update_fail_malformed_htlc
Transfer	Payment	Invoice
Transfer	Payment	Payment Request
Update	Invoices	Bolt11 encoding	BOLT #11: Invoice Protocol for Lightning Payments
Update	Gossip	Gossip Protocol	BOLT #7: P2P Node and Channel Discovery
Update	Transactions	LN-Penalty
Update	Transactions	Eltoo payment channels	eltoo: A Simple Layer2 Protocol for Bitcoin
Multihop	Sphinx	Overview	Sphinx Packet, Using Sphinx to Improve Onion Routing Circuit Construction (short paper)⋆, Sphinx: A Compact and Provably Secure Mix Format, Security Analysis of the Lightning Network
Multihop	Onion Routing	Overview	Sphinx and Onion routing, Onion Routing with HTLCs on the Lightning Network explained! - Beginner / Experts
Multihop	Onion Routing	Public vs. Private channel	Do the channel balances get publicly announced in real-time on Lightning Network?,Exploring Lightning Network Routing
Multihop	Onion Routing	Channel announcements	BOLT #2: Peer Protocol for Channel Management
Multihop	Onion Routing	Routing fees	The Lightning Network (Part 2) – Routing Fee Economics
Multihop	Onion Routing	Expiry delta	cltv_expiry_delta Selection
Multihop	Onion Routing	Route hints	Exploring Lightning Network Routing
Base	Framing and feature negotiation
Transport	Noise Protocol Framework	Overview	The Noise Protocol Framework, The Noise Protocol Framework (video)
Transport	Noise Protocol Framework	Noise XK	Handshake patterns, Noise Explorer
Atomic Swaps	Introduction	Overview	What are Atomic Swaps? A Beginner’s Guide,Atomic Swaps: How the Lightning Network Extends to Altcoins, Atomic Swaps, Atomic Swaps on the Lightning Network
Atomic Swaps	Submarine swaps vs. reverse swaps	Overview	Onboarding the Masses: Submarine Swaps, Submarine Swaps on the Lightning Network
Atomic Swaps	Loops	Overview	Announcing Lightning Loop Alpha: An Easier Way to Receive on Lightning,Loop Out In-depth
Current Limitations			Lightning Network 2.0, Major Limitations of the Lightning Network
BOLTs 1.1 and the future	Proposal States		Lightning Specification 1.1 Proposal States, Lightning User Experience: A Day in the Life of Carol
BOLTs 1.1 and the future	Liquidity	Splicing	Channel top-up, Splicing Proposal
BOLTs 1.1 and the future	Liquidity	Dual Funded channels	Proposal for Advertising Channel Liquidity
BOLTs 1.1 and the future	Payments	AMP	AMP: Atomic Multi-Path Payments over Lightning, Base AMP, Specific fee routing for multi-path payments
BOLTs 1.1 and the future	Routing	Rendezvous routing	Rendez vous mechanism on top of Sphinx
The Far Future	Routing	Just in time routing	Just in Time Routing (JIT-Routing) and a channel rebalancing heuristic as an add on for improved routing success in BOLT 1.0
The Far Future	Onboarding	Multiparty channels / channel factories	What are Channel Factories and how do they work?, Onboarding the Masses: Channel Factories
The Far Future	Payments	Decorelation	Payment Decorrelation
The Far Future	Payments	Streaming Payments	BOLT 11, real time micro payments, and route redundancy
The Far Future	Payments	Refunds
The Far Future	Payments	Fast Failure
The Far Future	Scripts	Scriptless Scripts with ECDSA	Scriptless Scripts with ECDSA
Privacy considerations			How the Lightning Network Layers Privacy on Top of Bitcoin
Privacy considerations	Watchtowers		Incentivizing payment channel watchtower,Trustless Watchtowers, Architecture of LND Watchtowers Incentivizing Payment Channel Watchtowers
Privacy considerations	Channel probing attack for channel balance		On the Difficulty of Hiding the Balance of Lightning Network Channels
Privacy considerations	Decorrelation of lightning payments		Decorrelation of Lightning Payments
Privacy considerations	SNARKs		Better privacy with SNARKs
Security/Attack Vectors	Denial of Service attacks		State of the Crypto: Lightning Network DDoS’d, Payment channel congestion via spam-attack
Considerations	Desired topology of a high functional network	Autopilot	Improving the autopilot of bitcoin’s lightning network, Autopilot PR in c-lightning
Considerations	Desired topology of a high functional network	Channel management	Lightning network topology Considerations, Rebalancing in the lightning network: Analysis and implications
Considerations	Desired topology of a high functional network	Cyclic Superhubs	Cyclic Superhubs as Solution Towards Reasonable Lightning Network Topology
Considerations	Neutrino		Exploring Neutrino, Neutrino: The Lighter Side of Lightning
Considerations	Pitfalls of concurrent requests
Considerations	Broadcasting channel updates		What is the status of the Lightning Network?
Implementations	LND		Lightning Network Daemon
Implementations	ptarmigan		Ptarmigan
Implementations	electrum		Electrum Implementation in Python, see electrum/ln*.py
Implementations	rust-lightning	Incomplete implementation	Rust-Lightning
Implementations	c-lightning		c-lightning — a Lightning Network implementation in C
Implementations	Eclair		Eclair - A scala implementation of the Lightning Network
Implementations	DotNetLightning	Incomplete implementation	Lightning network daemon with F#
Implementations	geelightning	Incomplete implementation	geelightning in Rust
Setting up a node			Bitcoin Lightning Network #1: Can I compile and run a node?, Beginner’s Guide to ️Lightning️ on a Raspberry Pi, My Lightning Node setup with c-lightning, Fastest and cheapest way to get your own Lightning Node running - on a RaspberryPi with a nice LCD

CVEs

Identifiers	Type	Sources
CVE-2019-12998 / CVE-2019-12999 / CVE-2019-13000	CVE Disclosure	Full Disclosure, Video Explanation

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Fabian Jahr, Christian Decker, Fabrice Drouin, René Pickhardt, and Alex Bosworth for their help in putting together the above resources.