Research corpus InteroperabilityBLC-STUDY-0177

eltoo: A Simplified Update Mechanism for Lightning

Eltoo replaces penalties with a sequence of state numbers. A later state can spend an earlier one. Nothing is confiscated. The latest number wins if it is published in time.

Official external source only
Design paper
Official source

Compare

Record

Authors: Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun
Date: 2018
Publisher: Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun
Version: Source cited by the 2018 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0177
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

No hash is published. This build does not store those PDF bytes, so a checksum would be invented. Where a legacy path exists, it points at the Internet Archive copy of the old library.

Direct answer

Eltoo replaces penalties with a sequence of state numbers. A later state can spend an earlier one. Nothing is confiscated. The latest number wins if it is published in time.

Where to read

Official source — Blockstream, 2018
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.

Full text

Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.

What changed

A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.

Relationships

Canonical readingEltoo study
Related paperLightning
Related paperPayment channels

Cite this record

These citations point at the source document. They are not a licence to copy it.

Author–date

Decker, C., Russell, R., & Osuntokun, O. (2018). eltoo: A Simplified Update Mechanism for Lightning. Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun. https://blockstream.com/eltoo.pdf

BibTeX

@techreport{eltoo2018,
  title = {eltoo: A Simplified Update Mechanism for Lightning},
  author = {Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun},
  year = {2018},
  institution = {Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun},
  url = {https://blockstream.com/eltoo.pdf},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/eltoo}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - eltoo: A Simplified Update Mechanism for Lightning
AU  - Christian Decker
AU  - Rusty Russell
AU  - Olaoluwa Osuntokun
PY  - 2018
PB  - Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun
UR  - https://blockstream.com/eltoo.pdf
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0177",
    "title": "eltoo: A Simplified Update Mechanism for Lightning",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Christian Decker"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Rusty Russell"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Olaoluwa Osuntokun"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2018
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Christian Decker, Rusty Russell and Olaoluwa Osuntokun",
    "URL": "https://blockstream.com/eltoo.pdf",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

JSON BibTeX file RIS file CSL-JSON

Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections