Blockstream Releases Lightning Upgrade With New 'Plugin' Functionality

New improvements to an existing code repository are set to make it easier for developers to build their own features into bitcoin's lightning network, the in-progress tech layer many see as the cryptocurrency's best hope for its use in payments.

Announced Thursday, Blockstream is making the largest upgrade to its c-lightning software in eight months, releasing a new version that features a batch of upgrades.

Already, developers are already proving eager to build lightning network apps - as examples, a seven-year-old built a zombie hunting game that takes bitcoin lightning payments, and as of last week, it's even possible to order pizza courtesy of a crafty custom website.

"It goes back to an early decision we made. We thought, we could tell people what they can do and can't do or we could decide to give people the tools and a sanctioned way to go on and build the functionality they want," said Blockstream engineer Christian Decker, who pioneered the plugin idea.

This includes a small "Monitoring" tool that runs alongside a node "Checking if it's alive and kicking," as well as a "Probing" plugin that pings other random lightning nodes on the network to see how well other nodes react, helping developers determine which parts of the network are still rickety.

Many developers contribute to open-source lightning projects like c-lightning as hobbies in their spare time.

Beyond 0.7, the developers have lots of other ideas for improving the technology down the road, including getting a start on the new lightning 1.1 spec dreamed up at a developer summit in Adelaide, Australia, and outlining new features that will make payments more user-friendly.

These features are really needed to make lightning easier to use.

Russell pointed to the lightning torch, a popular grassroots game where users have been passing around a lightning payment, adding a little to it each time it's passed.

As a sort of unintended side-effect, it's shown some of the problems lightning has so far.