The Lightning Network is capable of running above multiple blockchains, but is primarily anchored on Bitcoin. To understand LN, you need a fundamental understanding of Bitcoin and its building blocks.
There are many good resources that you can use to learn more about Bitcoin, including the "companion" book _Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition_, written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, which you can find on GitHub under an open source license. However, you do not need to read a whole other book to be ready for this one!
In this chapter, we've collected the most important concepts you need to know about Bitcoin and explained them in the context of the Lightning Network. This way you can learn exactly what you need to know in order to grasp the Lightning Network without any distractions.
This chapter covers several important concepts from Bitcoin, including:
* Keys and digital signatures
* Bitcoin transactions and their structure
* Bitcoin transaction chaining
* Bitcoin Script - locking and unlocking scripts
* Basic locking scripts
* Complex and conditional locking scripts
* Timelocks
* Hash functions
=== Keys and digital signatures
((("cryptography", "defined")))((("cryptography", see="also keys and addresses")))You may have heard that bitcoin is based on _cryptography_, which is a branch of mathematics used extensively in computer security. Cryptography can also be used to prove knowledge of a secret without revealing that secret (digital signature), or prove the authenticity of data (digital fingerprint). These types of cryptographic proofs are the mathematical tools critical to bitcoin and used extensively in bitcoin applications.
((("digital keys", see="keys and addresses")))((("keys and addresses", "overview of", id="KAover04")))((("digital signatures", "purpose of")))Ownership of bitcoin is established through _digital keys_, _bitcoin addresses_, and _digital signatures_. The digital keys are not actually stored in the network, but are instead created and stored by users in a file, or simple database, called a _wallet_. The digital keys in a user's wallet are completely independent of the bitcoin protocol and can be generated and managed by the user's wallet software without reference to the blockchain or access to the internet.
Most bitcoin transactions require a valid digital signature to be included in the blockchain, which can only be generated with a secret key; therefore, anyone with a copy of that key has control of the bitcoin. ((("witnesses")))The digital signature used to spend funds is also referred to as a _witness_, a term used in cryptography. The witness data in a bitcoin transaction testifies to the true ownership of the funds being spent. ((("public and private keys", "key pairs")))((("public and private keys", see="also keys and addresses")))Keys come in pairs consisting of a private (secret) key and a public key. Think of the public key as similar to a bank account number and the private key as similar to the secret PIN.
==== Private and public keys
((("keys and addresses", "overview of", "private key generation")))((("warnings and cautions", "private key protection")))A private key is simply a number, picked at random. In practice, and to make managing many keys easy, most bitcoin wallets generate a sequence of private keys from a single random _seed_, using a deterministic derivation algorithm. Simply put, a single random number is used to produce a repeatable sequence of seemingly random numbers that are used as private keys. This allows users to only backup the seed and be able to _derive_ all the keys they need from that seed.
Bitcoin, like many other cryptocurrencies and blockchains, uses _elliptic curves_ for security. In Bitcoin, elliptic curve multiplication on the _secp256k1_ elliptic curve is used as a _one-way function_. Simply put, the nature of elliptic curve math makes it trivial to calculate scalar multiplication of a point but impossible to calculate the inverse ("division", or "discrete logarithm").
Each private key has a corresponding _public key_, which is calculated from the private key, using scalar multiplication on the elliptic curve. In simple terms, with a private key +k+, we can multiply it with a constant +G+ to produce a public key +K+:
----
K = kG
----
It is impossible to reverse this calculation. Given a public key +K+, one cannot calculate the private key +k+. Division by +G+ is not possible in elliptic curve math. Instead, one would have to try all possible values of +k+ in an exhaustive process called a _brute force attack_. Because +k+ is a 256-bit number, exhausting all possible values with any classical computer would require more time and energy than available in this universe.
==== Hashes
Another important tool used extensively in Bitcoin, and in the Lightning Network, are _cryptographic hash functions_ and specifically the +SHA256+ hash function.
A hash function also known as a _digest function_ is a function that takes arbitrary length data and transforms it into a fixed length result, called the _hash_, _digest_, or _fingerprint_. Importantly, hash functions are _one-way_ functions meaning that you can't reverse them and calculate the input data from the fingerprint.
For example, if we use a command-line terminal to feed the text "Mastering the Lightning Network" into the SHA256 function it will produce a fingerprint as follows:
----
$ echo -n "Mastering the Lightning Network" | shasum -a 256
Now at this point you might be wondering how it is possible for a function that digests data of unlimited size to produce a unique fingerprint that is a fixed-size number?
In theory, since there an infinite number of possible pre-images (inputs) and only a finite number of fingerprints, there must be many pre-images that produce the same 256-bit fingerprint. when two pre-images produce the same hash, this is known as a _collision_.
In practice, a 256-bit number is so large that you will never find a collision on purpose. Cryptographic hash functions work on the basis that a search for a collision is a brute-force effort that takes so much energy and time that it is not practically possible.
Deterministic:: The same input always produces the same hash.
Irreversible:: It is not possible to compute the pre-image of a hash.
Collission-Proof:: It is computationally infeasible to find two messages that have the same hash.
Uncorrelated:: A small change in the input produces such a big change in the output that the output seems uncorrelated to the input.
Uniform/Random:: A cryptographic hash function produces hashes that are uniformly distributed across the entire 256-bit space of possible outputs. The output of a hash appears to be random, though it is not truly random.
Using these features of cryptographic hashes, we can do build some interesting applications:
Fingerprints:: A hash can be used to fingerprint a file or message so that it can be uniquely identified. Hashes can be used as universal identifiers of any data set.
Integrity Proof:: A fingerprint of a file or message demonstrates its integrity, as the file or message cannot be tampered with or modified in any way without changing the fingeprirnt. This is often use to ensure software has not been tampered with before installing it on your computer.
Commitment/Non-repudiation:: You can commit to a specific preimage (e.g. a number or message) without revealing it, by publishing its hash. Later, you can reveal the secret and everyone can verify that it is the same thing you committed to earlier because it produces the published hash.
Proof-of-Work/Hash Grinding:: You can use a hash to prove you have done computational work, by showing a non-random pattern in the hash which can only be produced by repeated guesses at a pre-image. For example, the hash of a Bitcoin block header starts with a lot of zero bits. The only way to produce it is by changing a part of the header and hashing it trillions of times until it produces that pattern by chance.
Atomicity:: You can make a secret pre-image a condition of spending funds in several linked transactions. If any one of the parties reveals the pre-image in order to spend one of the transactions, all the other parties can now spend their transactions too. All or none become spendable, achieving atomicity across several transactions.
e to alter the message and still have the same hash.
A digital signature is a number that is calculated from the application of the private key to a specific message.
Given a message m and a private key k, a signature function F_sig_ can produce a signature S:
latexmath:[ S = F{sig}(m, k) ]
This signature S can be independently verified by anyone who has the public key K (corresponding to private key k), and the message:
latexmath:[ S' = F{verify}(m, K, S) ]
If S' matches S, then the verifier can confirm that the message m was signed by someone who had access to the private key k. Importantly, the digital signature proves the possession of the private key k at the time of signing, without revealing k.
Digital signatures use a cryptographic hash algorithm. The signature is applied to a hash of the message, so that the message m is "summarized" to a fixed-length hash H(m) that serves as a fingerprint.
=== Bitcoin transactions
Transactions are data structures that encode the transfer of value between participants in the bitcoin system.
The fundamental building block of a bitcoin transaction is a transaction output. Transaction outputs are indivisible chunks of bitcoin currency, recorded on the blockchain, and recognized as valid by the entire network.
Bitcoin full nodes track all available and spendable outputs, known as _unspent transaction outputs_, or UTXO. The collection of all UTXO is known as the UTXO set and currently numbers in the millions of UTXO. The UTXO set grows as new UTXO is created and shrinks when UTXO is consumed. Every transaction represents a change (state transition) in the UTXO set, by consuming one or more UTXO as _transaction inputs_ and creating one or more UTXO as its _transaction outputs_.
For example, let's assume that a user Alice has a 100,000 satoshi UTXO that she can spend. Alice can pay Bob 100,000 satoshi, by constructing a transaction with one input (consuming her existing 100,000 satoshi input) and one output that "pays" Bob 100,000 satoshi. Now Bob has a 100,000 satoshi UTXO that he can spend, creating a new transaction that consumes this new UTXO and spends it to another UTXO as a payment to another user, and so on.
A transaction output can have an arbitrary (integer) value denominated as a multiple of satoshis. Just as dollars can be divided down to two decimal places as cents, bitcoin can be divided down to eight decimal places as satoshis. Although an output can have any arbitrary value, once created it is indivisible. This is an important characteristic of outputs that needs to be emphasized: outputs are discrete and indivisible units of value, denominated in integer satoshis. An unspent output can only be consumed in its entirety by a transaction.
So what if Alice wants to pay Bob 50,000 satoshi, but only has an indivisible 100,000 satoshi UTXO? Alice will need to create a transaction that consumes (as its input) the 100,000 satoshi UTXO and has two outputs: one paying 50,000 satoshi to Bob and one paying 50,000 satoshi *back* to Alice as "change". Similarly, if Alice wants to pay Bob 85,000 satoshi but has two 50,000 satoshi UTXO available, she has to create a transaction with two inputs (consuming both her 50,000 satoshi UTXO) and two outputs, paying Bob 85,000 and sending 15,000 satoshi back to herself as change.
