While many in the Bitcoin community still celebrate Great Halving, other - relentless code writing, since the issue of scaling the network is still worried minds blockchain and Bitcoin developers. For example, BitFury giant - one of the largest companies in the world manufacturer 16nm ASIC chips and creator of light bulbs, miners, in collaboration with Lightning Network community on last week published a technical description Flare Protocol, which, according to the authors, is to solve some aspects of the problem of scaling Bitcoin network.
Lightning Network is a superstructure of blockchain, which allows users to exchange Bitcoins through special channels, bypassing blockchain, in order to reduce the time of the transaction, and to reduce the pressure on the Bitcoin network. Transactions are recorded in blockchain after the recipient wants to withdraw funds beyond the channel Lightning Network.
The main problem of the LN, which have repeatedly exaggerated in Bitcoin environment throughout the past year, is the risk of centralization of the entire network. Bitcoin enthusiasts rightly feared that Lightning Network nodes Operators will centrally manage the device, and the network itself becomes a large payment system, such as Visa, bringing to naught all the efforts of bitcoin blockchain devs.
Flare - Lightning Network model routing protocol to implement micropayments in the Bitcoin network, which reduces the risk of network centralization, subject to the basic functions of the superstructure itself. Authors of protocol are already well-known in the world cryptocurrency developers Bitfury : Pavel Prikhodko, Thank Zhigulin, Mikola Sahno and Alexei Ostrovsky, a representative of Lightning Olaluva Osontokun.
40-page document published on the web is in the public domain zone, it contains a technical description of the hybrid two-phase routing algorithm called Flare. The first step is to update the routing scheme that provides information on network characteristics. The second stage involves the rapid collection of information in response to a request from the Lightning Network.
Flare task is to accelerate the search for routes Lightning Network, while minimizing the amount of data stored on the device and compliance with the principle of decentralization. Running the algorithm in an experimental environment will be held in late July.
Perhaps the most important part of the concept of Flare are network nodes, called "beacons" that communicate with other nodes within the radius of its visibility.
The combination of local nodes and beacons are about to optimize the routing process, helping to get directions on beacons, with a greater probability of execution
Instead of need to create a hierarchy of nodes, Flare allows hosts to choose other neighboring nodes in random order, to act together with them.
As a result, it turns out something like the "fog of war" in the computer strategy, when we see only a few units in a limited radius. The nodes are connected in a random order with other nodes outside radius. This allows them to maintain the highest complexity of the organization, in which it becomes, in fact, does not matter the total size of the network - to any of its components have access,
— said in document
Payment channels can interconnect hundreds of thousands or even millions of nodes. In this case the sender and receiver communicate with each other is decentralized, that is, the network will operate even in the event of failure of individual nodes.
Thus, the new algorithm will allow Lightning Network avoiding the centralization of risk for which the micro-system is often criticized, and significantly increase the capacity of the network as a whole.
With the help of payment channels, millions or hundreds of thousands of nodes are connected to each other, allowing the network to find the way from the sender to the recipient in a decentralized manner.
— explained co-founder of Lightning Network Joseph Poon
Authors of the protocol think , that Flare ensure that the algorithm Bitcoin bandwidth comparable with those that have a Visa or PayPal. After its implementation in the test network Bitfury hopes to reach the minimum capacity level of 400 transactions per second per channel and more than 100 000 transactions per second on the network as a whole.
What will be the real effectiveness Flare algorithm will soon be judged by the results of the test run.
We would like to remind you that the new algorithm is just one of the possible solutions of the hypothetical global scaling problem. Coming in the fall, October 8-9, in Milan pass is the third conference entitled Scaling Bitcoin, which will be presented other promising development in this line, which I will keep you informed. According to the organizers, the focus during the conference will be devoted to discussing the problems of miners, in view of what happened Halving.