Re: Universal Payment Channels

Stefan- UPC basically allows connectors to exchange notes that can prove to
a ledger that they are entitled to collect a certain amount of money from
one another. These notes can be exchanged between connectors without the
ledger being involved. The only data that must be saved by the connector is
the last valid note.

I think that one could also build this type of functionality into ILP, as
long as there is some way for connectors to exchange notes that prove that
they are entitled to a certain payment. In UPC, this hinges on a "hold
period" during which one node can prove the other is cheating.

I think it's easiest to view ILP in the context of UPC- ILP is like a form
of UPC where a new channel is opened for each transaction. Adding UPC-like
scalability into ILP then becomes an exercise in determining how to avoid
opening a new channel while maintaining security. It sounds like you guys
are well on the way to doing that.

Xavier- Interesting to read about the Digital Silk Road. I've run across it
before, but have not been able to find much concrete protocol work. It
sounds like they are talking about some combination of a payment channel
system, and source routing (the entire route of a packet is sent with that
packet). Althea (the incentivized mesh project that UPC is a part of) has
similar goals, but is able to draw upon 20 years of technological advances
in distributed routing and digital currencies.

-Jehan