lnd

of thousands of dollars into it. >Not your keys/monitor, not your coins! watchtowers don't require your keys.

With just some dodgy software and additional complexity papering over the critical flaws.

et reliable pricing, use a bank account, and achieve reasonable settlement times for transactions. Then came the Lightning Network (LN), first introduced in 2016 in this white paper: https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf. One of the original goals of the LN was to solve Bitcoin’s scalability problem. It works by creating a second local consensus layer between two parties on top of the main Bitcoin blockchain, only going back to layer 1 for final settlement or dispute resolution, thereby decongesting the main blockchain and enabling faster transaction speeds. At Sparkswap, we’re taking advantage of Lightning’s fast transaction speeds to build an alternative to existing custodial exchanges: for the first time, you can have fast, convenient trading without custodial trust. I started working on Bitcoin after two years in wealth management technology at BlackRock, where I got to see how the financial system operates at a mechanical level. As an engineer, looking at the antiquated way that money actually moves around the system (you’d be surprised how many FTP uploads and CSVs are involved) and how reliant it is on a small group of institutions that have to trust each other, it was immediately clear to me that we can do much better. Bitcoin offers a way to re-architect our financial system in an internet-native way that removes reliance on those central parties, opening opportunities for more people to access it, and for new service providers to thrive like they have on the internet. But there is still a lot of work to be done to solve fundamental problems like custody - and that's why I started working on Sparkswap. After almost two years of hard work, we’ve just launched Sparkswap Desktop, our Lightning-powered app for buying Bitcoin. With the app, because every purchase is executed on the LN, it’s both instantaneous and you never have to give up control of your Bitcoin private keys. As the saying goes, not your keys, not your coins^2. Here's how it works. When you deposit USD via ACH in the open source Sparkswap app (https://github.com/sparkswap/sparkswap-desktop), it is sent to a US-domiciled bank account that Sparkswap (the company) doesn't own or control. Then later when you buy Bitcoin in the app, the Bitcoin payment to you is put in escrow (called a Hash/Time-lock Contract, or HTLC) locked by a cryptographic hash on the Lightning Network. This means that if you can produce the preimage of the hash, you get the Bitcoin, but at this point only Sparkswap knows the preimage. Then the app creates an escrow payment to Sparkswap for the USD price of the Bitcoin locked by the same hash using our payment partner. Since Sparkswap has the preimage, we can then immediately claim the escrowed dollars by sending the preimage to our payment partner. This gives you access to the preimage through our payment partner’s API, which the app then uses to claim the BTC on your behalf. The escrows also have timeouts so that they can be canceled if they aren't executed after a certain time. This whole process results in USD being swapped for BTC with a level of security that popular services don't provide, and in most cases swaps complete in just a few seconds. In addition, every Bitcoin you buy with Sparkswap is instantly available in a channel on the Lightning Network. That means that you can easily spend that Bitcoin on the dozens of games, apps, and merchants building Lightning-powered services. And since Sparkswap opens Lightning channels to you, after initial setup you can transfer funds from your bank, buy Bitcoin, and spend it on the Lightning Network all in a matter of seconds, making it one of the easiest ways to get started on Lightning. The first version of the app is designed for users that run LND (a popular Lightning node, https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd) already. If you don’t, we recommend Zap (https://github.com/LN-Zap/zap-desktop/releases), a desktop Lightning Wallet that lets you run a light client so you don’t have to sync the full blockchain. The current release of Sparkswap Desktop also only supports purchasing Bitcoin with USD. However, we have plans to support selling Bitcoin, as well as other Lightning implementations and clients (and mobile!), so stay tuned for updates. We know cryptocurrency certainly has its issues, and we’re working to try to fix one of them. In just the first half of 2019, almost $500M^3 was stolen from custodial exchanges. We believe it’s critical to the value and future success of Bitcoin to establish trustless, non-custodial trading. We don’t have a token, and we’re not selling vaporware - we’ve shipped a real product that solves a real problem and enhances the biggest proven use case in the cryptocurrency industry: buying Bitcoin. We'd love feedback on the product from all — Lightning Network enthusiasts, critics, and those that don’t know much about it. If you have any trouble getting started, please ask us for help! (support at sparkswap.com) Thanks! Trey [1] https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-trading-volume-tops-11-bill... [2] https://www.coindesk.com/2018-a-record-breaking-year-for-cry... [3] https://www.coindesk.com/exit-scams-swindled-3-1-billion-fro...

n React, React-Native, MobX and Electron, communicating with a Lightning daemon over a binary RPC protocol. Ideal applicants have experience building+shipping React-Native applications and maintaining open source projects. {Cryptographic Protocol Engineer} Experienced software engineer versed in applied cryptography, peer-to-peer networks, distributed systems, open source software, and cryptocurrency protocols. Tasks include working on lnd[3], the most feature-complete implementation of the Lightning Network, neutrino[4], an advanced light client operating mode for Bitcoin, and contributing to the design of the BOLT[5] specifications. {Infrastructure and Distributed Systems Engineer} Systems-oriented engineer (or SRE) to build highly-available, secure systems, lowering the barrier to entry for operating routing nodes. Tasks include writing advanced software tooling for automated channel management, initial client channel selection (autopilot), ongoing capital management and optimization, monitoring infrastructure for routing nodes, and passive analysis of the health of the network from graph theoretic metrics. To apply, send a brief description of your relevant experience, github link (optional) and resume to jobs@lightning.engineering. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network [2]: https://twitter.com/roasbeef [3]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/ [4]: https://github.com/lightninglabs/neutrino [5]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/

ibuted Systems Engineer}: We're looking for an experienced software engineer well versed in applied cryptography, peer to peer networks, distributed systems, open source software collaboration, and cryptocurrencies. Your job description would include working on lnd[4] the most feature-complete implementation of the Lightning Network, neutrino[5] an advanced lite client operating mode for Bitcoin, conduct novel research into cryptocurrencies (and related areas), and helping to design the next generation of smart contract applications on Bitcoin. {Frontend Developer}: Our work on the second-layer of blockchains presents a number of UI/UX challenges as we lift traditional wallets to the next layer creating a new application platform on top Lightning. As a result, we're also looking for a frontend developer to build out the key applications, libraries, and tools for the masses to interact with Lightning. Our applications are built on React, React-Native, MobX and Electron, communicating with a Lightning daemon over a binary RPC protocol. Ideal applicants have experience building+shipping React-Native applications, and have also have experience maintaining open source projects. You can contact me directly at jobs@lightning.engineering with some, or all of the following: link to your github account, resume, a brief cover letter detailing your past experience in the areas listed above, and some relevant work you've done. [1]: http://lightning.network/ [2]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/ [3]: https://github.com/roasbeef/, https://twitter.com/roasbeef [4]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/ [5]: https://github.com/lightninglabs/neutrino

ibuted Systems Engineer}: We're looking for an experienced software engineer well versed in applied cryptography, peer to peer networks, distributed systems, open source software collaboration, and cryptocurrencies. Your job description would include working on lnd[4] the most feature-complete implementation of the Lightning Network, neutrino[5] an advanced lite client operating mode for Bitcoin, conduct novel research into cryptocurrencies (and related areas), and helping to design the next generation of smart contract applications on Bitcoin. {Frontend Developer}: Our work on the second-layer of blockchains presents a number of UI/UX challenges as we lift traditional wallets to the next layer creating a new application platform on top Lightning. As a result, we're also looking for a frontend developer to build out the key applications, libraries, and tools for the masses to interact with Lightning. Our applications are built on React, React-Native, MobX and Electron, communicating with a Lightning daemon over a binary RPC protocol. Ideal applicants have experience building+shipping React-Native applications, and have also have experience maintaining open source projects. You can contact me directly at jobs@lightning.engineering with some, or all of the following: link to your github account, resume, a brief cover letter detailing your past experience in the areas listed above, and some relevant work you've done. [1]: http://lightning.network/ [2]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/ [3]: https://github.com/roasbeef/, https://twitter.com/roasbeef [4]: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/ [5]: https://github.com/lightninglabs/neutrino