Magical Crypto Friends’ Episode Talks Monero and BTC’s Lightning Network Integration

The recent upgrade on the Monero blockchain has generated mixed reactions in the crypto community. In an episode of Magical Crypto Friends, Riccardo Spagni shared his thoughts on this development. Other panelists in the show included WhalePanda, Samson Mow and the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee.

Firstly, Spagni talked about Bulletproof. In this regard, he revealed that Bulletproof was developed by two individuals working in the Monero Research Laboratory. He added that is a compact range proof used to conceal transaction information on the Monero network. More specifically, Riccardo disclosed that Bulletproof had been on testnet since the end of 2017, during which it underwent rigorous tests and auditing. Bulletproof is expected to reduce transaction sizes which will, in turn, reduce transaction fees by a significant margin.

When Charlie Lee asked about the disadvantages of Bulletproof, Riccardo stated that there are none. Instead, Riccardo said that Bulletproof is an improved version of their previous security mechanisms with faster validation and more compactness.

Regarding the possible implementation of Bulletproof on the Bitcoin network, Spagni replied that Bitcoin does not have range proofs because its transactions are not private. Contrariwise, Spagni confirmed that the Monero network will indeed implement Lightning and that developers have already started this process. To this end, Riccardo said that Lightning is expected to improve scalability on the Monero blockchain network. He was responding to questions posed by WhalePanda.

Riccardo expressed his admiration for Lightning, the existence of a live Lightning network as the reason. This means that the integration of this solution will be considerably easier. Moreover, Riccardo mentioned that they are partnering with Bitcoin developers to add support for Rust-Lightning on the Monero network. However, this is dependent on the completion of the Rust-Lightning project that is currently under development.

Lastly, Spagni confirmed that the Monero had almost all the requirements for implementing Lightning, with the exception being a payment channel.