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Cryptocurrency News Articles
(Starting from Thunderbolt, Re-examining the Design Logic of the Bitcoin Lightning Network)
Apr 26, 2025 at 10:12 am
This chapter's content is explained based on the article (Stateless and Verifiable Execution Layer for Meta-Protocols on Bitcoin) (see reference link 1).
When people mention Bitcoin, the first attributes that come to mind are usually 'decentralization' and 'immutability'. However, when you actually want to use it to buy a cup of coffee, you will quickly encounter an awkward problem: waiting for transaction confirmation takes longer than waiting for the coffee, and sometimes the transaction fee is even more expensive than the coffee itself. Assets on Bitcoin are still 'as immovable as a mountain'—mainly relying on HODL, unable to be lent, combined, or interoperate.
The script structure of Bitcoin Script is extremely conservative, limiting most off-chain interaction scenarios. It was not designed to handle thousands of payments per second. However, the reality is that people want Bitcoin to be usable, even if it's just to buy a game skin or give a tip while watching a video, without waiting for ten minutes.
The Bitcoin main chain is like a highway, while the Lightning Network is akin to a toll fast lane built alongside it. Its core concept stems from a compromise on main chain transaction efficiency: since there is a speed bottleneck in on-chain transactions, the focus is no longer on recording every transaction on-chain, but rather on establishing dedicated 'payment channels' between users for high-frequency bookkeeping, ultimately syncing the state of funds only when the channel is closed. This model is similar to friends settling up after alternating who treats for meals each week—people do not immediately transfer money to the bank after every meal, but rather settle accounts in one go after accumulating several meals. The Lightning Network is essentially a transaction network woven together by thousands of such payment channels.
However, this seemingly ingenious system exposes multiple dilemmas in practical applications. First is the high threshold for channel construction; users must pre-lock funds to establish a trading channel, which means that to trade with any party, a dedicated channel connection must be established in advance. Second is the complex routing problem; when user A and B lack a direct connection, even if there is an indirect path A-C-B, if the intermediate channel lacks funds or the nodes along the path are unavailable, the transaction will still fail. More severely, there are security risks; the system requires users to remain online to prevent the counterparty from submitting expired transactions for fraud when the channel is closed, which imposes unrealistic operational demands on ordinary users' devices.
Despite the Lightning Network being operational for many years, these structural flaws have prevented its practical application from breaking through bottlenecks. Public data shows that the total locked amount in the entire Lightning Network currently only maintains around 100 million USD, which is nearly marginalized in relation to the trillion-dollar valuation of the Bitcoin system. This raises deep industry reflections: can we build a more complete off-chain payment protocol to break through the existing predicament?
According to Chain Catcher news on April 15, HSBC disclosed in an official news release that Bitcoin Thunderbolt is the most milestone technical upgrade for Bitcoin in the past decade. The overall observation of Thunderbolt resembles 'Lightning Network 2.0', but it is not just an upgrade; it is more like a reconstruction of the off-chain Bitcoin interaction paradigm.
Bitcoin Thunderbolt is a soft fork upgrade method based on the Bitcoin base layer. It does not rely on second-layer networks or cross-chain bridge compromises, but instead modifies the protocol level of the Bitcoin main chain, fundamentally enhancing Bitcoin's scalability, transaction performance, and programmability.
From a performance perspective, Nubit, using UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) Bundling technology, has achieved significant optimization of the traditional Bitcoin transaction processing model. The traditional Bitcoin network, due to its single UTXO model, has clear limitations on transaction speed and throughput. UTXO Bundling allows multiple UTXOs to be aggregated for processing, effectively compressing the transaction data volume, thus enhancing transaction speed by about 10 times without sacrificing security.
In terms of programmability, Bitcoin Thunderbolt reintroduces and expands the OP_CAT opcode (which was present in early versions of Bitcoin and later removed). OP_CAT allows for data concatenation operations, enabling developers to build more complex script logic, thereby directly implementing smart contracts on the Bitcoin main chain. The most direct benefit of this upgrade is: developers can deploy decentralized applications (dApps) on the native Bitcoin network without relying on side chains, Rollups, or cross-chain bridges.
In terms of asset protocol integration, Nubit advocates and implements a unified standard called Goldinals. Goldinals provides a framework for asset issuance based on zero-knowledge proofs and state commitments. In simple terms, this is a 'Bitcoin native' token standard that does not rely on external trust institutions and does not require complex cross-chain bridges to verify the existence and status of each token on-chain. BitMM, running on Bitcoin, integrates fragmented protocols such as BRC-20, Runes, and Ordinals. Nubit has also made significant breakthroughs in trustless transactions. Its BitMM (Bitcoin Message Market) system supports users in conducting trustless transaction matching
Disclaimer:info@kdj.com
The information provided is not trading advice. kdj.com does not assume any responsibility for any investments made based on the information provided in this article. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and it is highly recommended that you invest with caution after thorough research!
If you believe that the content used on this website infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately (info@kdj.com) and we will delete it promptly.
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