Lightning Network support added to Electrum wallet

The new version of the Electrum cryptocurrency wallet adds support for Lightning Network for faster andcheap transactions in BTC.

Last week, a beta version of Electrum 4.0 with support for the Lightning Network (LN) was launched. 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 fromElectrum applications 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 may provide incorrectchannel status information, users should either use a server they trust or set up their own “watchtowers” ​​to detect fraudulent transactions.”

As part of the wallet update, support for “underwater swaps” — versions of atomic swaps in which one side of the swap is performed on-chain and the other side off-chain.

Despite the fact that the payment technology of the secondThe Lightning Network was introduced back in 2018, it is still in the experimental stage, and only a few companies in the industry support payments through this network. Among them — Bitfinex, HodlHodl and Zebpay.

University researchers earlier this yearNorway and Luxembourg have 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.

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