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Lightning

Lightning for Builders

All 17 chapters of Mastering the Lightning Network, simplified, with a live lab on your laptop.

Run real Lightning nodes on regtest: create invoices, open channels, route payments, and dig into HTLCs, onions and the network graph, with the book's commands and Python. Needs a laptop with Docker.

17 lessons, 600 min

Start

Foundations

  1. 1Introduction: why the Lightning Network existsBitcoin settles; Lightning moves. What problem Lightning solves, how it keeps Bitcoin's trust model, and what it costs you in return.15 minBeginnerReadingQuiz
  2. 2Getting started: your lab and your first paymentStart the four-node lab on your laptop, connect it to this page, and make Dina's first invoice and Alice's first payment.40 minBeginnerReadingQuizLabRead first: Introduction: why the Lightning Network exists
  3. 3How the Lightning Network worksOpen a channel yourself, confirm it on-chain, and pay through it, to see the three moves every channel makes: open, update, close.45 minBeginnerReadingQuizLabRead first: Getting started: your lab and your first payment

Nodes

  1. 4Lightning node softwareLND, c-lightning and Eclair all speak the same protocol but feel different to use. Ask all three the same question.30 minIntermediateReadingQuizLab
  2. 5Operating a Lightning Network nodeRunning a node is a job: set the fees you charge for routing, back up your channels, and know what to watch.35 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: How the Lightning Network works

Inside Lightning

  1. 6Lightning Network architectureA map of the whole protocol, layer by layer, so every later lesson has a place to fit.20 minIntermediateReadingQuiz
  2. 7Payment channelsLook inside a real channel: find its funding transaction on-chain and see how commitment transactions and revocation keep both sides honest.40 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: How the Lightning Network works
  3. 8Routing on a network of payment channelsHow Alice pays Dina through two strangers without trusting either: hash time-locked contracts, step by step, then a real two-hop payment.45 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: Payment channels
  4. 9Channel operation and payment forwardingTwo ways to end a channel: a cooperative close that settles at once, and a force close where the time lock makes you wait. Do both.40 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: Routing on a network of payment channels

The network

  1. 10Onion routingHow each node on a route learns only its neighbours: build and peel a toy onion in Python, then compare it with the real Sphinx format.45 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: Routing on a network of payment channels
  2. 11Gossip and the channel graphHow every node learns the map of the network from its peers, and what that map contains. Read Alice's graph in Python.35 minIntermediateReadingQuizLab
  3. 12Pathfinding and payment deliveryWrite your own route finder over Alice's real channel graph, then see why real nodes also learn from failed attempts and split large payments.50 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: Gossip and the channel graph

Protocol

  1. 13Wire protocol: framing and extensibilityWhat a Lightning message looks like as bytes, how TLV fields let the protocol grow, and why feature bits follow the 'it's OK to be odd' rule. Parse a real init message.40 minIntermediateReadingQuizLab
  2. 14Lightning's encrypted message transportEvery peer link is encrypted and authenticated with the Noise protocol before a single Lightning message flows. What the handshake does, and what your node's connections look like.25 minIntermediateReadingQuizLab
  3. 15Lightning payment requestsTake an invoice apart: the human-readable part that holds the amount, the tagged fields inside, and the signature. Write a decoder for the amount.35 minIntermediateReadingQuizLab

Security and next steps

  1. 16Security and privacy of the Lightning NetworkWhat an attacker can learn or break: probe a route's hidden balance yourself, then survey jamming, fee attacks and the defences.45 minIntermediateReadingQuizLabRead first: Routing on a network of payment channels
  2. 17Conclusion: what to build nextYou have run every layer of Lightning yourself. Where the protocol is heading, and how to turn what you learned into a tool people use.15 minIntermediateReadingQuiz

What's next

Finish the final project, then show your PR to the Bitsacco community for feedback and mentoring.

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