Replacement cycling attacks risk millions in Bitcoin Lightning Network
One week ago, senior Bitcoin Lightning Network developer Antoine Riard quit. At the time, Riard explained his surprise resignation by saying, “Effective now, I’m halting my involvement with the development of the Lightning Network and its implementations, including coordinating the handling of security issues at the protocol level… I think this new class of replacement cycling attacks puts Lightning in a very perilous position.” Protos reported on his departure, yet the news seems to have had little impact on Lightning’s total value locked (TVL). When the news broke one week ago, there were approximately 5,500 bitcoin ($188 million) in the publicly viewable Lightning Network. Today, that capacity has declined a modest 4% to 5,300 bitcoin ($180 million). In spite of Riard’s sudden departure due to these critical vulnerability errors, more than 13,000 Lightning node operators continue supporting at least 62,000 open payment channels today. Indeed, these figures reflect only the publ...