Lightning Network Developer States Disclosed Vulnerability Is Not an ‘Intentional Backdoor,’ Calls for Responsible Journalism
Antoine Riard, a security researcher and developer who recently exposed a vulnerability in
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, a scaling layer,
clarified several points on the issue. In an email,
Riard blasted social media reports that called the vulnerability an “intentional backdoor,” explaining the situation has been known in some circles since
2022.
While he acknowledged that the mitigations already in place serve to harden the ecosystem against what he called “simple” or
“medium attacks” and that more sophisticated attacks would involve preparation and sufficient P2P (peer-to-peer) and
mempool knowledge, Riard stressed that changes at the bitcoin base layer might be the most “substantial” fix to this problem.
In addition,
Riard called for mainstream crypto sites and individual journalists to do responsible reporting on the issue, given the nature of current media distribution.
Riard also stated that he was not on any social media app due to the
“nature of the electronic communication and contemporaneous media,” which allows the propagation of sensitive information where
“mitigations are still in deployment.” He concluded by stating that he’ll further comment on this issue if the information flow keeps hampering the ability of the community to discuss the fixes for this issue in a
“responsible and constructive fashion.”
Many have started to criticize — and support — the feasibility of the changes needed to fix the
Lightning Network.
Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused BTC wallet, declared that “
the only change required to the base layer should be to permanently and irrevocably send the lightning network to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”
