casey-bowman/lightning_encoding

Rust implementation of lightning network encoding as defined by BOLTs

LNP/BP Core Library

This is LNP/BP Core Library: a rust library implementing LNP/BP specifications https://github.com/LNP-BP/LNPBPs. It can be used to simplify development of layer 2 & 3 solutions on top of Lightning Network and Bitcoin blockchain.

The current list of the projects based on the library include:

• RGB: Confidential & scalable smart contracts for Bitcoin & Lightning
• Generalized Lightning Network and it's reference implementation named LNP node enabling:
  • RGB extensions
  • DLC extensions
  • Lightspeed payments
  • Multi-peer channels
  • Faster lightning experiments (quicker adoption of eltoo, Taproot etc)
• LNP: Networking protocol for privacy-keeping and censorship-resistant applications, operating in both P2P and RPC modes (currently used as a part of Lightning network, but our effort is to make it more generic and usable even outside of LN). All services, developed by LNP/BP Standards Association (see points below) are made with LNP.
• BP node: Indexing service for bitcoin blockchain; more efficient & universal Electrum server replacement. In perspective - validating Bitcoin network node (using libbitcoinconsus)

The planned projects:

• Decentralized exchange for Lightning Network
• Bifrost Node: P2P LNP/BP network infrastructural node running
  • Decentralized exchange information workflows
  • Watchtowers (RGB-enabled)
  • DLC oracle provider
  • Anonymous intermediate storage for client-validated data (like RGB consignments)
  • Storm storage providers (see below)
• Storm: Incentivised trustless storage and messaging protocol
• Prometheus: Decentralized trustless computing

Potentially, with LNP/BP Core library you can simplify the development of

• Discreet log contracts
• Implement experimental lightning features
• Do complex multi-threaded or elastic/dockerized client-service microservice architectures

To learn more about the technologies enabled by the library please check:

• RGB Technology Internals
• Networking with LNP
• LNP/BP Nodes Initiative

The development of the library projects is supported by LNP/BP Standards Association.

Library functionality

The library provides the code for:

• RGB: confidential smart contracts with client-side validation, with Lightning network support
• Improvements & utilities for Bitcoin protocol
• Deterministic commitments that can be embedded into for Bitcoin transactions and public keys (DBC)
• Single-use seals
• Client-side validation
• Lightning networking protocol (LNP)
• Generalized lightning network

This code supports both Bitcoin blockchain and Lightning network.

Project structure

The library is built as a single Rust crate with the following top-level mods:

• paradigms: generic paradigms (API best practices) which are not bitcoin-specific
• bp: Bitcoin protocol extensions external to Bitcoin Core functionality and existing BIPs. These may also cover those of LNPBP standards which are not specific for other layers.
• lnp: Lightning Network protocol extensions: networking, generalized lightning channels and better layerization of BOLT specifications
• rgb: smart contracts for Bitcoin and Lightning network based client-side validation, deterministic bitcoin commitments and single-use seals.
• standards: other LNPBPs standard implementation which does not fit into any of the categories above

The library is based on other projects:

• rust-bitcoin
• bitcoin_hashes
• rust-secp256k1
• rust-secp256k1-zkp for Pedersen commitments and Bulletproofs used in confidential state inside RGB protocols
• rust-miniscript

Install

Get the dependencies

On Debian, run

sudo apt-get install cargo libssl-dev libzmq3-dev pkg-config g++ cmake

On Mac OS, run

brew cargo pkg-config zmq

Clone and compile library

Minimum supported rust compiler version (MSRV): 1.56.1, due to edition 2021 requirements

git clone https://github.com/lnp-bp/rust-lnpbp
cd rust-lnpbp
cargo build --release --all-features

The library can be found in target/release directory.

You can run full test suite with:

./contrib/test.sh

Please refer to the cargo documentation for more detailed instructions.

Use library in other projects

Add these lines to your Cargo.toml file at the very end of the [dependecies] section:

lnpbp = "~0.2.0"
lnpbp_derive = "~0.2.0"
lnpbp_services = "~0.2.0"

Contributing

Contribution guidelines can be found in a separate CONTRIBUTING file

More information

Policy on Altcoins/Altchains

Altcoins and "blockchains" other than Bitcoin blockchain/Bitcoin protocols are not supported and not planned to be supported; pull requests targeting them will be declined.

Licensing

See LICENCE file.