Bitcoin Lightning Network Developer Quits Over Security Fears

A key developer of Bitcoin's Lightning Network stepped down from his role after discovering a critical security vulnerability in the solution.

On October 20, key Lightning network developer Antoine Riard announced his decision to withdraw from the project after discovering a critical vulnerability.

Lightning network vulnerability

According to Reard, the network was vulnerable to proxy cycling attacks, which allow malicious actors to extort money from users by exploiting imbalances in private mempools.

Riard notes that while basic concessions will thwart simple attacks, they will not be able to prevent advanced attackers.

Thus, they emphasized on implementing comprehensive changes at the basic level of the network to enhance transparency and security.

These are the kinds of changes that require the full transparency and buy-in of the community as we change the security architecture of a fully cross-platform process or the decentralized Bitcoin ecosystem.

Riard indicated that he intends to return by Oct. 30 to resolve another issue on the public mailing list. Moreover, he stated that his focus will shift to mainstream Bitcoin development during this period.

Adoption increased.

The Lightning Network is built on top of Bitcoin as a ‘layer 2' payment protocol. It facilitates faster and more cost-effective transactions between nodes to solve Bitcoin's scalability challenges.

According to the data from DeFillama, the total number of BTC locked in this solution rose to more than 5,600 BTC in June last year. As of press release, TVL has fallen to 5316 BTC.

According to a report from River, the Lightning Network managed nearly 6.6 million transactions in August 2023, an increase of 1,212 percent from the estimated 503k transactions in August 2021.

Major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance have adopted this solution.

Pro-XRP Lawyer Questions Bitcoin Lightning Network

Meanwhile, prominent XRP advocate John Deaton criticized Bitcoin's Lightning Network by comparing it to another protocol based on the XRP Ledger.

Deaton argues that XRP's SpendTheBits protocol is a superior alternative to the Lightning Network. His perspective may be influenced by his role as an angel investor and chief legal officer at SpendTheBits.