New Lightning: MIT Introduces Spider Routing Scheme to Accelerate Cryptocurrency Transactions
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) “improved” the Lightning Network by creating a blockchain-based transaction routing network model called Spider.
According to the developers of MIT, the solution is a “network of payment channels” (PCN), which can reduce the time spent on transactions on the blockchain and even make a profit. Its architecture has significant similarities with the Lightning Network, a payment network already operating in Bitcoin and several other public blockchains.
Experts explained that transactions will be carried out with minimal participation of the blockchain. PCN users will create an escrow account outside the blockchain, thereby forming an integrated network of joint accounts. Then, payments will be made through these accounts, and information will be recorded on the blockchain only for creating and closing accounts, which will greatly accelerate transactions. Accounts may also charge a small fee if transactions are routed through them.
In traditional schemes, transactions are made in the shortest way, however, this does not take into account the user's balance, and if, when processing a large number of transactions, the balance on the joint account becomes zero, this will lead to a delay or failure of the operation. The Spider scheme offers a more efficient way to route cryptocurrency payments. It is about dividing transactions into parts that are transmitted through channels with different bandwidths. The developers are confident that such a scheme will work much more efficiently unlike other networks in which the payment is rejected if the payment channel cannot transfer a large payment.
In addition, if the account in Spider cannot process the incoming transaction, it is not rejected, but queued until this account recovers the balance of coins as a result of another transaction. At the same time, a special algorithm will check the workload of nodes to detect delays in such queues, which will allow less often to direct a transaction through a busy route. In the near future, the developers plan to increase the efficiency of the Spider solution for conducting transactions based on DAG and eliminate possible problems related to privacy.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) “improved” the Lightning Network by creating a blockchain-based transaction routing network model called Spider.
According to the developers of MIT, the solution is a “network of payment channels” (PCN), which can reduce the time spent on transactions on the blockchain and even make a profit. Its architecture has significant similarities with the Lightning Network, a payment network already operating in Bitcoin and several other public blockchains.
Experts explained that transactions will be carried out with minimal participation of the blockchain. PCN users will create an escrow account outside the blockchain, thereby forming an integrated network of joint accounts. Then, payments will be made through these accounts, and information will be recorded on the blockchain only for creating and closing accounts, which will greatly accelerate transactions. Accounts may also charge a small fee if transactions are routed through them.
In traditional schemes, transactions are made in the shortest way, however, this does not take into account the user's balance, and if, when processing a large number of transactions, the balance on the joint account becomes zero, this will lead to a delay or failure of the operation. The Spider scheme offers a more efficient way to route cryptocurrency payments. It is about dividing transactions into parts that are transmitted through channels with different bandwidths. The developers are confident that such a scheme will work much more efficiently unlike other networks in which the payment is rejected if the payment channel cannot transfer a large payment.
In addition, if the account in Spider cannot process the incoming transaction, it is not rejected, but queued until this account recovers the balance of coins as a result of another transaction. At the same time, a special algorithm will check the workload of nodes to detect delays in such queues, which will allow less often to direct a transaction through a busy route. In the near future, the developers plan to increase the efficiency of the Spider solution for conducting transactions based on DAG and eliminate possible problems related to privacy.