Fraud-Fighting 'Watchtowers' Are Coming With the Next Big Lightning Release

So-called lightning network "Watchtowers" - a much-anticipated next step for securing the network - are coming soon.

Watchtowers have long been considered a missing piece of bitcoin's lightning layer, as they're crucial for squashing fraud on the experimental, off-chain network that could make bitcoin payments faster and more scalable.

With version 0.7 of the LND software release coming at an undisclosed date in June, Lightning Labs is launching the most complete build of a network watchtower to date.

The concept for watchtowers aren't new, as it was first proposed in the original 2015 lightning network whitepaper as a way to prevent fraud.

Since inception, there have been some technological tests for watchtowers, including MIT's Lit, an open-source project led by lightning white paper co-author Tadge Dyja, and Lightning Peach from blockchain services firm BitFury.

Then there's Bitcoin Lightning Wallet, which implements watchtowers in what's known as the "Olympus Server." But, Osuntokun notes, LND's watchtower code can be run by anyone.

This coming release is a big step for the long-awaited technology, but Osuntokun and the Lightning Labs team still have future plans for improving the watchtower software.

Lightning co-creator Dryja has argued that if lightning works, watchtowers shouldn't actually be used very much.

That's because, if the watchtowers work, bad actors shouldn't try to broadcast old channels states because the watchtowers will ensure the bad actor loses money if they try.

As they're trying to keep watchtowers as privacy-preserving as possible, the team is looking into a way for making these payments to watchtowers more private.