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I'm really looking forward to the Lightning Network and all the efforts being put in by Blockchain.info, Blockstream, and others. But I was wondering if there aren't other options for decentralised scaling besides LN?

In particular, are there are other decentralised+offchain scaling models that have been suggested beside hub-and-spoke?

Кира Кисловская
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  • Channel Factories is a recently proposed scaling technology - a layer between bitcoin and lightning network https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/67158/what-are-channel-factories-and-how-do-they-work – Aleksandr Levchuk Jan 07 '18 at 22:17
  • I’m working on one but it’s (off-topic here because) not proof-of-work (thus not about Bitcoin), because [proof-of-work can never scale transaction volume _securely_](https://steemit.com/blockchain-scaling/@anonymint/lightning-networks-must-fail-if-it-succeeds). – Shelby Moore III Feb 09 '19 at 13:20
  • Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/63375/5406 – Murch Apr 13 '19 at 21:50

1 Answers1

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The obvious one would be side chains, the idea being that the transactions on the side chain would be off the main chain. Most other scaling solutions are either on-chain or centralized. For example, segwit and block size increases are on-chain and using a service like coinbase to move coins off-chain are clearly centralized.

Jimmy Song
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  • Any off chain solutions in the works currently? I would like to see some competition to LN, since LN nodes are said to have to register within the US. – hakunin Nov 08 '17 at 07:50
  • The simplest off chain solution is to have a 2of2 multi-sig wallet with someone who does not share their key with you (and vice versa). Both of you can add to this multi-sig wallet but if you wanted to move the funds out of it, the signature of both you and the other party would be required. Practical example: one has bitcoin but wants to regularly sell little parts to the other side without paying any on-chain fees. All you need is a shared knowledge of how much belongs to each one. For example a PrivateBin bin could be used for that. – Ján Sáreník Apr 28 '21 at 08:40
  • The more I read and learn about ln, the more I want to see other solutions. – Melroy van den Berg Oct 25 '22 at 01:37