lightning-dev
LN without SegWit: less efficient or less secure?
Posted on: January 16, 2017 07:32 UTC
In a recent email exchange, Andrés G.
Aragoneses asked whether the problem of Spillman-style channels could be solved by using OP_CLTV/OP_CSV style channels instead. He cited a post on Bitcoin Stack Exchange that described the use of channel timeout as an alternative to P2SH address. However, the Lightning spec does not currently implement this feature and instead uses CLTV and CSV to make HTLC steps work in a bidirectional manner. The spec does not limit the channel to having one end take the role of customer sending money to the merchant. While this is not a 100% solution on its own, it is still better than the current method without segwit, which can result in funds never being accessible again due to malleability issues.