The new version of the Electrum cryptocurrency wallet has added support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network to conduct faster and cheaper transactions in BTC.
The beta of Electrum 4.0 with support for the Lightning Network (LN) was launched last week. Wallet developers for the first time announced plans to add LN support back in the summer of 2019.
Users can enable the LN support option from the Electrum application or through the command-line interface. The function is located in the “Information” section of the wallet application. Electrum uses its own servers to run Lightning, but users can add their own servers. The release description says:
“Because servers can provide incorrect channel status information, users must either use a server they trust or set up their own watchtower (watchtowers — control channels for detecting fraudulent transactions).”
As part of the wallet update, support has also been added for “ underwater swaps ” – versions of atomic swaps with which one side of the swap is executed on the network and the other outside.
Despite the fact that the second level payment technology Lightning Network was introduced back in 2018, it is still at an experimental stage and only a few companies in the industry support payments through this network. Among them are Bitfinex, HodlHodl, and Zebpay.
Recall that earlier this year, researchers from universities in Norway and Luxembourg discovered the possibility of an attack on the Lightning Network. In this case, the balances of the nodes through which the transaction passes can be disclosed.
