How can Bitcoin's Lightning Network work without internet?

 

Sending Bitcoin or any other form of currency is difficult without the internet. What would be left in the event of a monumental crash of the internet and fiat money? According to recent research, Bitcoin's Lightning Network could still be usable under certain conditions.

Lightning Network without internet?

It is impossible to use social networks without the Internet. No Twitter, no Facebook, no YouTube, nothing. Beyond communications difficulties, an internet crash would inevitably cause major economic and financial disruptions.

Fiat money would likely take a fatal blow, and even if not, it would temporarily no longer be available. On the crypto side, the question arises. Indeed, the internet remains essential to send and receive cryptocurrencies in your wallet.

Essential, really? This is the question asked by Ahmet Kurt, a researcher and developer with a doctorate in computer science. He cites the example of the 2017 hurricane which took place in Florida:

“There was a huge power outage. People were desperate. Unless you have money, how are you going to pay for all this? It was disturbing. »

He provides part of the answer in a report he wrote jointly with other researchers. In this one, the researchers looked at a disaster scenario. They then explore payment on the Lightning Network of Bitcoin without the Internet.

Lightning Network on a mesh network

Less expensive than the original Bitcoin network, the LN network is often touted as the future of payments in the Bitcoin ecosystem. In the research carried out by academics, there is talk of local mesh networks (Mesh Networks, in English).

In this configuration, the nodes are connected to each other differently Via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; the different connected devices can torm a single network called LNMesh. Result: In the right circumstances, payments on the Lightning Network then become feasible.

“The approaches we propose work and can achieve success rates of up to 95% on large mobile wireless mesh networks. » explains the document.

Bitcoin without Internet: practical case

So that the Lightning Network can function optimally without the internet, there are several conditions, as explained in the document. For example, we will note that no changes must be made to the LN protocol for payments to work.

The researchers used 8 nodes installed on 8 Raspberry Pi for their experiment. These nodes were distributed across the University of Florida and connected via direct wifi and Bluetooth.

Without too much difficulty, sending and receiving BTC on the Lightning Network worked like internet access.

“The Lightning Network protocol allows these offline payments to be settled since the payments are off-chain and not recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. » details the research document.

The most curious can find the code linked to the research within the document published by the academics. Note, however, that payments made off-chain, in this case, are qualified as asynchronous payments.

Asynchronous payments are not synchronized with the blockchain or offline nodes. The problem will then be to coordinate the LN channels from the start. Currently manual, researchers believe this maneuver could be automated shortly.

There is still a lot of work to obtain a 100% offline blockchain.