Lightning Labs, developer of Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network (LN), has released a beta version of the Lightning Network Daemon (lnd) – a full implementation of the LN node – with added support for the latest protocol upgrades including Taproot and Musig2, among other improvements.
lnd is a software component that handles various aspects within LN including database management, creation of payment invoices and cancellation of payments, to name a few. The latest version of the software, called lnd 0.15 beta (v0.15-beta), aims to enable developers to create solutions for more use cases by taking advantage of the latest capabilities of the Bitcoin network.
In the announcement, Michael Levine, Lightning Labs’ product growth leader, revealed that more than 50 shareholders were involved in launching the company’s first issue in 2022, adding the following:
“This release provides full Taproot support for the internal lnd wallet, making it one of the most advanced Taproot wallets today. Moreover, this release supports an experimental Musig2 API that is compatible with the latest BIP draft.”
The primary goal of MuSig2, a multi-signature scheme, is to allow the generation of pooled public keys that can be used in Taproot outputs, thus, offering the ability to authorize transactions with Schnorr signatures.
Unlike previous versions, the beta version also removes redundant data from the revocation log container, which showed a 95% reduction in database size during initial testing. While the update doesn’t restore space for current instances, Levine envisioned a follow-up release might include a paging feature that could reclaim old disk space.
Staying true to its commitment to making LN more reliable, robust, and secure, Lightning Labs introduced greater control over routing preferences – ultimately helping to reduce transaction fees by defining the least expensive route.
Related: Bitcoin Network Power Demand Drops to 10.65GW as Hash Rate Drops 14%
The Bitcoin network recorded its lowest energy demand in 2022 of 10.65 gigawatts on June 25. As a result, the computing power for mining bitcoin blocks has fallen to 199,225 exahs per second (EH/s).
Bitcoin network power demand from 2018 to 2022. Source: ccaf.io
The sudden drop in energy demand in Bitcoin is directly related to the drop in the hash rate. The mining hash rate corresponds to the computing power required by bitcoin miners to successfully mine a block – a key safety measure.
