What do you guys think about layer 2 solutions for payments? Anyone used a Lightning app yet or maybe an L2 app on some other crypto? We have said of course we have a lot of considerations for our tech in future but just want to also get thoughts from potential users.
What I noticed about lightning network is that people are not using it, it is not really encouraged by developers. I remember segwit protocol was even created a year after segwit was creeated, it was proved and tested to be sucured and now used as default address for most bitcoin wallet. But lightning network is not really supported, maybe because it is not yet well proven to be secure.
I recently read about an attack that is very possible using lightning network address:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-lightning-network-is-vulnerable-to-looting-new-research-explains%3famp=1The 'Loot'
You might be able to see where this is going. Attackers take advantage of the blockchain congestion and pair it with exploiting the HTLC deadlines.
The attack relies on the bitcoin blockchain being filled to the brim with transactions so that no more can get through. The attacker hopes he or she can push the contracts past the built-in deadlines. If successful, the attacker can begin to “loot” the expired contracts.
“By attacking many channels and forcing them all to be closed at the same time […], some of the victims’ HTLC-claiming transactions will not be confirmed in time, and the attacker will steal them,” Harris explains in the blog post.
The researchers ran simulations on a test Lightning Network with dummy coins to test how feasible such an attack is.
In short, each closed channel results in one more transaction being pushed to the Bitcoin blockchain. The attacker will attempt to simultaneously close as many channels as possible to increase the number of transactions sent to the blockchain, increasing the chance of success.
Using their simulations, the researchers found that attacking 85 channels at once was enough to “guarantee a successful attack.”
Harris notes an attacker targeting 100 channels leads to a reward of “at least” 7402 HTLCs, with the average HTLC today holding about $138 worth of bitcoin. That could mean a payday of roughly $1,021,476.
They also found that, as expected, less block space leads to a higher attack success rate because an HTLC is less likely to go through before the deadline.
Finding “potential victims” was also eerily easy. In the simulation, the researchers found it wasn’t hard to set up channels with other users. Indeed, 95% of Lightning nodes accepted their invitations to set up a Lightning channel.
Jona Harris and Aviv Zohar say:
The researchers argue the attack is systemic and “eliminating the risk entirely seems to be a complicated task.”
That said, Harris suggests several strategies for solving the problem, or at least ameliorating it if the issue can’t be stomped out entirely. One is increasing the HTLC deadline so it is easier for a user tp counter the attacker via the Bitcoin blockchain in time.
You can read the full news on coindesk
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-lightning-network-is-vulnerable-to-looting-new-research-explains%3famp=1
What I think about it now is that lightning network is not yet developed, it can one way or the other be susceptible to attack.