The work of the developers of ACINQ and Core Lightning will make it possible to create double-financed Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) payment channels between users of the two software packages.
Lisa Neigut, developer of Core Lightning, attended the Connect the World podcast to talk about the goal of interoperability with ACINQ nodes. So far, no date has been set for this benefit. However, Neigut presented the idea as a perfectly achievable result. Core Lightning has confirmed the early arrival of this new feature on the Lightning network via its official Twitter account.
Blockstream, the parent company to which Core Lightning belongs, announced in June 2021 that its users already had the ability to open double-funded channels on LN. Neigut commented that ACINQ subsequently rolled out their own version of this idea with slight changes that differentiate it from Core Lightning. Therefore, achieving compatibility and interoperability between the two versions of this protocol requires some programming changes.
ACINQ and Core Lightning are two companies that are dedicated to the development of Lightning network implementations (client or software of the nodes) in Bitcoin and of tools that make their use more efficient.
Creating Bitcoin Lightning payment channels becomes more versatile
The standard way of creating a payment channel on the Lightning Network requires one of the parties involved to commit a certain amount of bitcoin (quotation BTC). The amount that the channel opener makes available for this purpose determines the channel's BTC sending capacity. It should be noted that, in this case, the channel lender can only send BTC and its counterpart can only receive, unless they balance the channel.
Double-financed payment channels on the Lightning Network allow you to balance channels from the moment they open. This allows both channel users to send and receive BTC immediately.
In early September, we reported that the Lightning Network payment channels market was growing. At the time, the liquidity of Magma, one of the marketplaces for the sale and rental of these channels, doubled in just three months.
