Programmer Creates Innovative Method to Send Large BTC Transactions via Lightning Network
2 min read
Programmer Carsten Otto performed a historic feat for the Lightning Network on Monday. He was able to send 0.6 BTC to another node, without being connected, in a transaction that took just 81 seconds.
According to the payment description, Otto sent the money to Rene Pickhardt, a developer working on the Lightning network. The transaction was fragmented into 137 pieces, which were joined together to form the final transaction.
The transaction represents a milestone for Lightning, proving that it can be used for higher value transactions. This also allows the network to further expand its capacity. In this regard, Lightning can process transactions equivalent to 14.4 terabyte blocks on the BTC network.
Transactions without the need for liquidity
The operation was carried out after Otto sent the amount of 0.6 BTC to Pickhardt. Both nodes weren’t connected, which is often a requirement for using Lightning, but that wasn’t necessary.
Then the transaction itself was sent, but not all at once. Instead of this path, it was divided into 137 independent parts and each one looked for the best way to reach its destination. This entire search process took place directly on the Lightning network.
In the end, the pieces came together and consolidated the transaction. Of the 137 micropayments sent, 92 gathered to complete the transaction. However, the payment was still completed, as this was the number needed to complete the transaction.
According to venture capital investor Diego Kolling, the system sends more transactions just to offset these losses. The 45 transactions that did not arrive were expected failures and which, over time, will become less and less frequent.
A curiosity: only 97 of the 137 pieces of payment made it to the end and still the payment was completed! The system commands the most justly counting on these flaws. Over time, fewer bits will need to be generated.
— Diego Kolling (@diegokolling) May 16, 2022
Sequence of historical facts
This is the first major accomplishment for the Lightning Network since March 2022, when the first transaction with another token in history was sent. Corey Philips, developer at Synonym, managed to send 5 USDT through Lightning in March.
As Pickhardt explained, the reduced testing requirement for sending transactions means that Lightning could support higher value transactions and faster payouts. In short, the network could support up to millions of transactions per second (TPS).
The functionality will still be tested, as it needs to undergo refinements before being mass used. In the case of the operation with Pickhardt, it took two attempts before the shipment was carried out safely.
With lnd:
— @c_otto83@toot.bike (@c_otto83) May 15, 2022
First attempt failed. Second attempt, after resetting mission control data:
30 seconds (41.24M pending after 13 seconds).
Note: That's just one run, not very scientific.
Let the experiments and discussions begin! pic.twitter.com/pjjCZzOhEb