LibraryScaling2016Design paperCorpus record
Basis of Lightning Technology: the public protocol specifications
Lightning BOLTs. Lightning protocol authors.
The BOLTs are the public specification of Lightning: channels, commitments, and routed payments on top of Bitcoin, not a single company's product.
A reading of the project's public design document. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not an offer.
The BOLTs are the public specification of Lightning: channels, commitments, and routed payments on top of Bitcoin, not a single company's product.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 4
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A Lightning wallet that cannot point at a BOLT is a closed system using the name.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The proposal
The BOLTs are the public specification of Lightning: channels, commitments, and routed payments on top of Bitcoin, not a single company's product.
Claim 03 · Paper model
The mechanism
A channel is a pair of Bitcoin transactions plus an off-chain commitment scheme. The commitment is what makes a payment revocable or enforceable.
Claim 04 · Paper model
The bound
This note does not quote capacity or a routing success rate.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
02 The proposal
Observation
What the study says
The BOLTs are the public specification of Lightning: channels, commitments, and routed payments on top of Bitcoin, not a single company's product.
Model
What has to hold
You are reading the BOLTs repository. A vendor's LSP is an extra service.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What Bitcoin transaction can a party broadcast if the counterparty disappears?
03 The mechanism
Observation
What the study says
A channel is a pair of Bitcoin transactions plus an off-chain commitment scheme. The commitment is what makes a payment revocable or enforceable.
Model
What has to hold
No price, supply, yield, or adoption figure is added by this desk.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Which BOLT defines the channel update you mean?
04 The bound
Observation
What the study says
This note does not quote capacity or a routing success rate.
Model
What has to hold
You are reading the BOLTs repository. A vendor's LSP is an extra service.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Which BOLT defines the channel update you mean?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01A channel is a pair of Bitcoin transactions plus an off-chain commitment scheme. The commitment is what makes a payment revocable or enforceable.
- 02Routing is a chain of conditional payments. A hop that fails must not lose the sender's funds, which is a property of the contract, not of the gossip.
- 03BOLT numbers divide the spec. Cite the number. 'Lightning' is the set.
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
What the name has to mean
The cut
The BOLTs are the public specification of Lightning: channels, commitments, and routed payments on top of Bitcoin, not a single company's product.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
What actually moves
The cut
Routing is a chain of conditional payments. A hop that fails must not lose the sender's funds, which is a property of the contract, not of the gossip.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
This note does not quote capacity or a routing success rate.
What a later deployment may change
The cut
BOLT numbers divide the spec. Cite the number. 'Lightning' is the set.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
You are reading the BOLTs repository. A vendor's LSP is an extra service.
Model · Not re-measured
The document is the one at the source URL. A marketing page with the same brand is not this text.
Model · Not re-measured
No price, supply, yield, or adoption figure is added by this desk.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
A custodial wallet that keeps the keys is not using this protocol for the user.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A Lightning wallet that cannot point at a BOLT is a closed system using the name.
What the design proposes
- A channel is a pair of Bitcoin transactions plus an off-chain commitment scheme. The commitment is what makes a payment revocable or enforceable.
- Routing is a chain of conditional payments. A hop that fails must not lose the sender's funds, which is a property of the contract, not of the gossip.
- BOLT numbers divide the spec. Cite the number. 'Lightning' is the set.
How the mechanism is specified
- A channel is a pair of Bitcoin transactions plus an off-chain commitment scheme. The commitment is what makes a payment revocable or enforceable.
- Routing is a chain of conditional payments. A hop that fails must not lose the sender's funds, which is a property of the contract, not of the gossip.
- BOLT numbers divide the spec. Cite the number. 'Lightning' is the set.
What this page does not treat as proven
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.