The Lightning Network (LN) is a rapidly growing second-layer payment protocol that works on top of Bitcoin to provide near-instantaneous transactions between two parties. With this practical guide, authors Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Rene Pickhardt explain how this advancement will enable the next level of scale for Bitcoin, increasing speed and privacy while reducing fees. Ideal for developers, systems architects, investors, and entrepreneurs looking to gain a better understanding of LN, this book demonstrates why experts consider LN a critical solution to Bitcoin's scalability problem. You'll learn how LN has the potential to support far more transactions than today's financial networks. This book examines: How the Lightning Network addresses the challenge of blockchain scaling The Basis of Lightning Technology (BOLT) standards documents The five layers of the Lightning Network Protocol Suite LN basics, including wallets, nodes, and how to operate one Lightning payment channels, onion routing, and gossip protocol Finding paths across payment channels to transport Bitcoin off-chain from sender to recipient

About the Author
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a critically acclaimed bestselling author, speaker, and educator, and one of the world's foremost Bitcoin and open blockchain experts. Andreas makes complex subjects accessible and easy to understand. Olaoluwa Osuntokun is a Bitcoin developer, researcher, and the CTO of Lightning Labs. Olaoluwa has been involved in Bitcoin development for over 5 years and contributes actively to the open source community in the form of code, protocol design, and research related to Bitcoin smart contract design.Rene Pickhardt is a data science consultant researching pathfinding, privacy, reliability of payments, and service level agreements of the Lightning Network. He has helped thousands of new Lightning-Network developers by sharing his knowledge on bitcoin.stackexchange.com and through private and public workshops.


Book Information
ISBN 9781492054863
Author Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Format Paperback
Page Count 424
Imprint O'Reilly Media
Publisher O'Reilly Media