eBook Description

Mastering the Lightning Network: A Second Layer Blockchain Protocol for Instant Bitcoin Payments (1st Edition) by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Rene Pickhardt

ISBN: 9781492054863

The Lightning Network (LN) is a second-layer payment protocol designed to address Bitcoin’s scalability issues. With Mastering the Lightning Network, authors Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, and Rene Pickhardt provide an in-depth, practical guide to understanding and working with LN. This book is perfect for developers, systems architects, investors, and entrepreneurs looking to gain a technical understanding of LN, which facilitates near-instantaneous Bitcoin transactions while reducing fees and increasing privacy.

The book explores how LN enables Bitcoin to scale, making it capable of supporting more transactions than traditional financial systems. Readers will gain insights into the architecture and workings of LN, learning about concepts like payment channels, onion routing, and how to set up a Lightning node.

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Preface :

• Intended Audience
• Conventions Used in This Book
• Code Examples
• O’Reilly Online Learning
• Acknowledgments by Authors

Part I: Understanding the Lightning Network :

• 
  

  Introduction

• Getting Started
• How the Lightning Network Works
• Lightning Node Software
• Operating a Lightning Network Node

Part II: The Lightning Network in Detail :

6. Lightning Network Architecture
7. Payment Channels
8. Routing on a Network of Payment Channels
9. Channel Operation and Payment Forwarding
10. Onion Routing
11. Gossip and the Channel Graph
12. Pathfinding and Payment Delivery
13. Wire Protocol: Framing and Extensibility
14. Lightning’s Encrypted Message Transport
15. Lightning Payment Requests
16. Security and Privacy of the Lightning Network

Part III: Appendices :

• Bitcoin Fundamentals Review
• Docker Basic Installation and Use
• Wire Protocol Messages
• Sources and License Notices
• Glossary
• Index