diff --git a/ch03.asciidoc b/ch03.asciidoc index 23a0c4a..9fa797e 100644 --- a/ch03.asciidoc +++ b/ch03.asciidoc @@ -407,14 +407,15 @@ The `Payment Hash` is rather included in the Lightning Message that also transpo * sending back errors === Missing bits -From a computer science perspective the Lightning Network protocol is mainly a peer to peer protocol between its participants. +From a computer science perspective the Lightning Network protocol is mainly a peer-to-peer protocol between its participants. All communication between participants is sent via so called Lightning Messages. Most importantly communication is needed to open and close payment channels, to send and receive onions, to set up and settle or fail HTLCs and for exchanging gossip information. -The Lightning messages are sent in an encrypted way after a peer connection has been established. -Establishing the peer connection follows a cryptographic handshake following the Noise Protocol Framework. +All Lightning messages are sent encrypted after a connection between two peers has been established. +Establishing the peer connection starts out with a cryptographic handshake following the Noise Protocol Framework. The Noise Protocol Framework is a collection of templates for cryptographic handshakes and is also used by WhatsApp and Wireguard. Using the Noise Protocol Framework makes sure that every message that is sent via Lightning is encrypted and authenticated. -This makes development a little bit tricky as one cannot easily monitor one's own traffic on a tool like wireshark for debugging. footnote:[Luckily tools exist to make developer's lives easier: https://github.com/nayutaco/lightning-dissector] +This assures privacy. +On the other hand, this makes development more difficult as one cannot easily monitor one's own traffic on a tool like Wireshark for debugging. footnote:[Luckily tools exist to make developers' lives easier: https://github.com/nayutaco/lightning-dissector] === some thoughts that were supposed to be at other places but didn't make it to the text yet * network of payment channels