sosthene00/lnpbps

LNP/BP Standards for Layer 2 & 3 protocols

LNP/BP Specifications

LNP/BP stands for "Bitcoin Protocol / Lightning Network Protocol". This set of specifications covers standards & best practices for Layer 2, 3 solutions (and above) in cases when they do not require soft- or hard-forks on the Bitcoin blockchain level and are not directly related to issues covered in Lightning Network RFCs (BOLTs).

Basically, LNP/BPs cover everything that can be anchored to Bitcoin transactions, defines primitives for L2+ solution design and describes complex use cases which can be built from some primitives. This allows such solutions as financial assets, storage, messaging, computing and different forms of secondary markets leveraging Bitcoin security model and Bitcoin as a method of payment/medium of exchange.

Criteria for a LNP/BP specification proposal:

• Should not be covered by existing or proposed BIPs
• Should not cause soft- or hard-fork in Bitcoin blockchain (but may depend on soft-forks from an existing BIP proposals)
• Should not distort Bitcoin miner's economic incentives
• Should not pollute Bitcoin blockchain with unnecessary non-transaction related data or have to maintain such pollution as low as possible
• Should not be covered by existing or proposed BOLTs
• Must not require a utility or security tokens to function (but may enable creation of digital assets or tokenized physical goods)
• Must not depend on non-bitcoin blockchains (but may be applicable to bitcoin-compatible blockchains)

List of current LNP/BP proposals

No	Layer	Vertical	Title	Author(s)	Type	Status
1	Transaction (1)	Bitcoin protocol	Key tweaking: collision-resistant elliptic curve-based commitments	Maxim Orlovsky et al	Standard	Final
2	Transaction (1)	Bitcoin protocol	Deterministic embedding of cryptographic ommitments into transaction output scriptPubkey	Maxim Orlovsky et al	Standard	Proposal
3	Transaction (1)	Bitcoin protocol	Deterministic definition of transaction output containing cryptographic commitment	Giacomo Zucco et al	Standard	Proposal
4	Client-validated data (3)	Cryptographic primitives	Multi-message commitment scheme with zero-knowledge provable unique properties	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Proposal
5	Transaction graph (2)	Bitcoin protocol	Universal short Bitcoin identifiers for blocks, transactions and their inputs & outputs	Christian Decker et al	Standard	Proposal
6	Transaction (1)	Bitcoin protocol	Deterministic bitcoin commitments	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
7	Client-validated data (3)	Consensus layer	Strict encoding	Peter Todd, Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
8	Client-validated data (3)	Cryptographic primitives	Single-use-seals	Peter Todd, Maxim Orlovsky	Informational	Draft
9	Client-validated data (3)	Consensus layer	Client-side validation	Peter Todd, Maxim Orlovsky	Informational	Draft
10	Transaction graph (2)	Bitcoin protocol	Bitcoin transaction output-based single-use-seals with pay-to-contract commitments	Peter Todd et al	Standard	Proposal
11	Client-validated graphs (4)	Smart contracts	RGB: Client-validated confidential smart contracts using bitcoin transaction graphs for Bitcoin and Lightning Network	Maxim Orlovsky et al	Informational	Proposal
12	Client-validated graphs (4)	Consensus layer	RGB Schema: client-side validation rules for RGB smart contracts	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
13	Client-validated graphs (4)	Consensus layer	RGB client-side verification and data serialization	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
14	Client-validated data (3)	Smart contracts	Bech32 encoding for client-validated data	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
15	OSI Session (i5)	Internet2	Handshake and encryption in network communications based on Noise_XK (BOLT-8 extract)	Multiple peers	Standard	Proposal
16	OSI Session (i5)	Internet2	LNP handshake over WebSockets	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
17	OSI Session (i5)	Internet2	LNP handshake over ZMQ sockets	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
18	OSI Transport (i4)	Internet2	Native message framing protocol (BOLT-8 extract)	Multiple peers	Standard	Planned
19	OSI Presentation (i6)	Internet2	ZMQ-based RPC and ESB protocols for microservices	Multiple peers	Standard	Planned
20	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB fungible assets schema (RGB-20)	Multiple peers	Standard	Final
21	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB schema for NFTs representing ownership rights (RGB-21)	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Proposal
22	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB reputation and identity schema (RGB-22)	Maxim Orlovsky, Sabina Sachtachtinskagia	Standard	Draft
23	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB verifiably-unique history log for auditable data (RGB-23)	Maxim Orlovsky, Giacomo Zucco	Standard	Planned
24	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB-24 schema for decentralized global name system (DGNS)	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
30	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB-wrapped native blockchain assets schema (RGB-30)	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
25-29, 31	Reserved		For the future use by RGB schemata
32	Application (5)	Bitcoin	BIP-32 derivation path extension for read-only wallets	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
33	Client-validated data (3)	Lightning network protocol	Lightspeed: micropayments for Lightning Network	Maxim Orlovsky	Draft
34	Client-validated data (3)	Cryptographic primitives	Zero-knowledge arguments for data persistance using probabalistical checkable proofs	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
35	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Biffrost: LN message extensions for RGB data propagation	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
36	OSI Presentation (i6)	API	Recommendations for API design	Maxim Orlovsky	Informational	Draft
37	Application (5)	Smart contracts	Invoicing formats for RGB-20 fungible assets schema	Alekos Filini	Standard	Rejected
38	Application (5)	Smart contracts	Universal LNP/BP invoices supporting Bitcoin, LN & RGB	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
39	Transaction graph (2)	Bitcoin protocol	Bitcoin transaction output-based single-use-seals with sign-to-contract commitments	Maxim Orlovsky et al	Standard	Planned
40	Transaction graph (2)	State channels	Storm: trustless storage with escrow contracts	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
41	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Lightning network message extensions for Storm	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
42	OSI Application (i7)	Internet2	Uniform encoding for internet2 addresses	Maxim Orlovsky	Draft
43	Application (5)	Smart contracts	RGB-enabled BIP43 purpose field & identity system	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
44	Application (5)	Smart contracts	Script templating: BIP-32 & LNPBP-43 key derivations within for non-miniscript-compatible Bitcoin scripts	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
45	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Lightning network message extensions for decentralized exchange functionality	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
46	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Channel funding with RGB assets	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
47	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Multipeer lightning channels	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
48	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Bilateral channel funding	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
49	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Synchronized multi-hop state updates via delegation in Lightning network	Maxim Orlovsky, Christian Decker	Standard	Planned
50	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Channel transaction structure negotiation using PSBTs (generalized LN)	Maxim Orlovsky, Christian Decker	Standard	Planned
51	OSI Application (i7)	Lightning network protocol	Decentralized naming & name resolution system	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
52-57	Reserved		For the future use by lightning network protocol extensions
58	Client-validated data (3)	Cryptographic primitives	Apophis: distributed elliptic curve-based key creation with shared secrets	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
59	Transaction graph (2)	Bitcoin protocol	Typhon: trustless Bitcoin sidechains	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
60	Client-validated data (3)	Game theory	Ibiss: incentive-based interactive anonymous settlement scheme for computation integrity arguments	Maxim Orlovsky, Sabina Sachtachtinskagia	Informational	Draft
61	Client-validated data (3)	Game theory	Toth: incentive-based interactive settlement scheme for computation integrity arguments with reputation	Maxim Orlovsky, Sabina Sachtachtinskagia	Informational	Draft
62	Transaction graph (2)	Smart contracts	Prometheus: trustless multiparty computing with escrow & arbitration using Ibiss protocol on bitcoin blockchain	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Draft
63	Application (5)	Smart contracts	Prometheus+: trustless multiparty computing with escrow & arbitration using Ibiss2 protocol over LN with tokenized RGB reputation	Maxim Orlovsky	Standard	Planned
100	Transaction graph (2)	Bitcoin protocol	Scalable & confidential single-use-seal commitment layer 1	Standard	Brainstorming

Invited or planned proposals to join LNP/BP standards family

1. Discreet log contracts: deterministic transaction structure, embedding into lightning network, wire protocols
   • Specification effort
   • Lightning Discreet Log Contract Channels
2. Different pre-Schnorr schemes for scriptless scripts
3. Generalized lightning network standartisation and related eltoo and PTLC proposals
4. Micropayments:
   • LSAT Authentication and Payments for the Lightning-Native Web by Olaoluwa Osuntokun

Layers for LNP/BP proposals:

No	Title	Description	Examples
1	Transaction	Data or protocols defined for a single bitcoin transaction (both off-chain and on-chain)	Cryptographic primitives, advanced multisignature schemes, transaction structure
2	Transaction graph	Data and protocols defined on a transaction graph	Blockchains, sidechains, state channels
3	Client-validated data	Protocols and formats for off-chain data (persistent or ephemeral)	Cryptographic primitives, serialization
4	Client-validated graphs	Protocols and formats for off-chain graph structures	Complex commitment schemes, schemata
5	Application	Specific high-level applications build of underlying layers	Assets, audit, storage, computing, messaging, decentralized exchanges and marketplaces

Additionally to these layers there is a set of network protocol layers organized according to ISO OSI model, with numbers prefixed using i symbol ("complex dimension").

Verticals for LNP/BP proposals:

Name	Description	Examples
Cryptographic primitives	Basic cryptographic functions applied at the level of transactions or client-validated data	Commitment schemes, zero knownledge
Consensus layer	Standards critical for consensus in distributed systems	Data encoding, validation rules
Internet2	Standards for end-to-end encrypted censorship-resistant networking communications (Internet2)	Network encryption, decentralized naming systems, network data serialization
Bitcoin protocol	Changes at the level of bitcoin protocol	Commitments in bitcoin transactions, single-use-seals applications to bitcoin, layer 1 enhancements
Lightning network protocol	Changes to lighting-network related standards and state channel mechanics	New types of state channels, new lightning network message types, changes in channel transaction structure
Smart contracts	Distributed smart contract execution environment and VMs	Bitcoin scripts, scriptless scripts, RGB, Simplicity language
Game theory	Game-theoretical setups for trustless protocols	Incentive schemes with bitcoin transactions & RGB smart contracts