Right this moment, a contract developer targeted on Bitcoin and the Lightning Community, Tremendous Testnet, unveiled his newest invention, Hedgehog, a protocol for asynchronous layer two bitcoin funds.
“It is a protocol much like the Lightning Community,” Tremendous Testnet acknowledged. “And that it’s a layer 2 for Bitcoin funds, solely on this one, in contrast to the Lightning Community, the 2 events do not should each be on-line, it is asynchronous. One celebration can ship the opposite cash then they’re offline.”
One of many options of Hedgehog channels is its simplicity in comparison with lightning channels, in keeping with the venture’s Github. State updates in Hedgehog channels solely require the sender to suggest an replace, which the recipient can then settle for at their comfort. This asynchronous nature permits for extra flexibility and effectivity in fee processing.
The protocol works by leveraging a primitive in Bitcoin script referred to as “revocable connectors.” These connectors are constructed on two much more primitive parts: revocable scripts and connector outputs. Revocable scripts enable both celebration to revoke a transaction after a sure interval, including an additional layer of safety and management. Connector outputs mean you can assemble a pre-signed transaction spending a separate UTXO alongside the connector output, permitting the transaction to be invalidated by spending the connector output by itself.
For example how Hedgehog channels function, think about a situation the place Alice opens a channel with Bob by sending a specific amount of bitcoin right into a multisig deal with. Utilizing the revocable connectors, Alice can then ship off-chain funds to Bob whereas he’s offline. These funds are embedded in a chunk of textual content, much like a cheque, and could be despatched by way of e mail or different communication strategies.
When Bob comes on-line, he has the choice to just accept or reject the fee. If he accepts, he can cosign and broadcast the transaction to replace the channel steadiness. If he rejects, he can suggest another transaction for Alice to think about.
One of many potential issues that Hedgehog wants to resolve is, as an example, if a celebration sends cash to their counterparty they lose the flexibility to power shut the channel as a result of they don’t have the opposite celebration’s signature. The protocol gives a conditional revocation mechanism. This mechanism goals to permit the sender to revoke a earlier state conditionally, giving each events a window of time to override the transaction if wanted.
Moreover, Hedgehog addresses the problem of funds being caught in a multisig deal with if one celebration turns into completely unavailable. By incorporating time-lock situations into the script, the protocol can make sure that funds can nonetheless be accessed after a sure interval, even when one celebration is unable to supply their signature.
Tremendous Testnet posted that he has an concept for the right way to use Hedgehog channels to construct a federated CoinPool that he named Burrow. These taken with that may be taught extra about it right here.