In this episode, Nadav Kohen of Suredbits discusses payment points as an alternative to HTLCs on the Lightning Network. They cover topics such as timelocks, PTLCs, proof of payment, invoiceless transactions, and stuckless payments. They also explore the use of Schnorr signatures and contingent payments. Overall, an intriguing conversation on the potential of payment points.
Payment points offer improved privacy and payment decorrelation on the Lightning Network compared to HTLCs.
Payment points enable contingent payments, escrow contracts, and atomic multi-payment setups, expanding the capabilities of the Lightning Network.
Deep dives
Payment points and privacy leaks
Currently on the Lightning Network, every hop along a payment route can know they're on the same route because every HTLC uses the same hash. This privacy leak is worsened by multi-path payments. Payment points, a potential upgrade to the Lightning Network, offer advantages over HTLCs, including improved privacy. With payment points, instead of revealing the preimage to a hash, the sender reveals the scalar to a point. This prevents nodes from deducing the entire payment route and enables payment decorrelation. Further, payment points provide protection against wormhole attacks, where nodes steal fees and hold funds hostage.
Exploring Payment Points and HTLCs
HTLCs (Hash Time Lock Contracts) are used in the Lightning Network to make routing atomic between payment hops. They consist of a hash lock and a time lock, ensuring funds can only be claimed with the correct preimage. Payment points, on the other hand, use point locks instead of hash locks. With payment points, a sender reveals a scalar to a point, allowing nodes to compute the sum of scalars to verify the payment. This provides increased privacy and enables trustless payments for valid digital Schnorr signatures of specific messages.
Stuckless Payments and Contingent Payments
Stuckless payments allow for safe retrying of payments if they get stuck during setup, without needing the payer to reveal the preimage. This can be achieved using payment points, where the sender reveals a verifiably encrypted scalar to the receiver. Moreover, payment points enable contingent payments, where the payment is contingent on the receiver obtaining a specific signature. This allows for escrow contracts and other complex payment conditions, with only the sender and recipient needing to implement the payment point feature.
Future Potential and Interoperability
Payment points offer various possibilities for future enhancements. They can be used in escrow contracts, enabling trustless conditional payments. They can also be combined with or structures, allowing for extensive creativity in designing contingent payments and atomic multi-payment setups. Payment points can improve the Lightning Network's efficiency, privacy, and contract capabilities, with potential applications in verifiable secret sharing and payment renegotiation.