Re: FYI: Lightning will work across ledgers

All channel implementations are dealing with a similar concept, and just do
it in different ways to work on different platforms and have different
capabilities. One of the main things that sets Lightning apart is that the
code is very complex, to accommodate the limitations of Bitcoin script.
Sure, you *could* use various layers and adapters to make it work, but
would you want to? I'm guessing most people will want to use something that
is tailored to their use-case and easy to build upon.

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 12:55 PM, Ryan Fugger <arv@ryanfugger.com> wrote:

> I thought I'd mention here a snippet from a conversation I had with Jorge
> Timón of Blockstream last week.  He envisions the Lightning Protocol for
> Bitcoin being used to enable multi-hop transactions across different
> blockchains.  All that's required is an extension to handle exchange rates
> between assets other than Bitcoin.  Once that's in place, it seems to me
> there's really nothing stopping Lightning from being used across any kind
> of ledger -- a lot of the crypto stuff required for trustless transactions
> on blockchains is overkill for more conventional non-decentralized ledgers,
> but those ledgers can always masquerade as blockchains for compatibility.
> It made me realize that inter-blockchain Lightning would end up quite
> functionally equivalent to ILP + crypto conditions.
>
> On Sat, Jan 21, 2017 at 11:15 AM, Jorge Timón <jtimon@jtimon.cc> wrote:
>
>> For multi-assets [ie, cross-chain transactions], you simply need to use
>> channels involving assets in 2 different chains.  You could also need to
>> extend the protocol to allow conversion rates (instead of 1:1 when dealing
>> only with btc)
>>
>
> The inter-blockchain/exchange rate stuff isn't written up yet, and isn't
> currently a priority, but here are the links for the Lightning project.
>
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 12:38 PM, Jorge Timón <jtimon@jtimon.cc> wrote:
>>
>> There's a #lightning-dev channel on freenode and a mailing list:
>>
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/
>>
>> Blockstream is currently paying 2 developers to work on it. Rusty
>> Russel and Christian Decker.
>> The 2 authors of the paper founded their own company and hired some
>> more people. There's a few more companies working on it I think, or at
>> least having one dev working on it.
>> There's also independent contributors.
>> https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning
>> https://lightning.network/
>>
>> "These participants represent organizations including: ACINQ, Amiko
>> Pay, Bcoin/Purse.io, Bitfury, Blockstream, and Lightning Labs."
>> https://medium.com/@lightningnetwork/lightning-network-meeti
>> ng-on-interoperability-and-specifications-ea49e47696a4#.l1462yjko
>
>