TLS118: Ken Sedgwick on Building VLS, Improving Lightning Custody, & Multi-Party Signing on Lightning

Ken Sedgwick is a Software Engineer at the Validating Lightning Signer project, which is focused on improving Lightning custody by separating keys from nodes in a discrete signing device.

In our discussion, we covered how VLS works and why it is an important project for the Lightning ecosystem, why building external signing devices is so much harder on Lightning than on-chain, the technical challenges being solved to enable multi-party signing on Lightning nodes, and the future of security and custody on the Lightning Network.

→ VLS: https://vls.tech/

Sponsors

→ Voltage: https://stacksats.how/voltage

→ Stakwork: https://stacksats.how/stakwork

This show is a Lightning podcast. That means instead of asking for likes or shares, I ask for sats.

The best way to show your support is to download Fountain from the App Store, load your wallet with some sats, and send them over the Lightning Network to kerooke@fountain.fm.

→ Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/

→ More Episodes: https://www.stacksats.how/podcast

→ Lightning Address: ⚡kerooke@fountain.fm

→ Nostr NIP-05: kr@stacker.news

Links

→ Stack Sats: https://www.stacksats.how/

→ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerooke

→ Books: https://www.kevinrooke.com/book-recommendations

→ Bitcoin News: https://stacker.news/r/kr

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro

02:23 - Ken Sedgwick Intro

10:22 - What is the VLS Project?

19:32 - Why Hasn’t Anyone Built External Lightning Signing Devices Until Now?

26:23 - Will Bitcoin Hardware Wallet Companies Create Lightning Signing Devices?

32:58 - Why Is VLS an Open Source Project?

37:11 - Examples of Security Breaches and Loss-of-Funds in Lightning

42:45 - Lightning Node Operators and Aircraft Pilots

50:10 - Will Improved Lightning Custody Cause Structural Changes to the Lightning Network?

53:58 - Multi-Party Signing on the Lightning Network

1:04:19 - VLS Roadmap

1:09:32 - The Lightning Round