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Scaling Bitcoin: The Rise of the Lightning Network

Talk Lisa Neigut
researcher practitioner
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Lisa Neigut (Nifty), a core lightning developer, traces the Lightning Network's history from the 2015 Poon-Dryja whitepaper through the pivotal Scaling Bitcoin conferences and the contentious SegWit soft fork that was a technical prerequisite for mainnet deployment. She details the BOLT specification process—contrasting it with Bitcoin's informal BIP system—and recounts her own multi-year saga drafting, implementing, and finally merging the 'dual funding' (interactive transaction construction) proposal in 2024.

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bolt-specification-process dual-funding-interactive-transaction-construction governance guest-talks lightning-network-payment-channels protocols research scaling-bitcoin-conference-series segwit-and-transaction-malleability