Working on an explainer diagram for the Lightning network section of using bitcoin https://www.learnbitcoin.com/journey/using-bitcoin/ Been trying to land the mental model that a channel is sidechain-shaped: Alice and Bob start on mainnet, drop into Lightning for as long as the channel is useful, settle back to mainnet at close. Two on-chain transactions, unlimited off-chain payments between. Been struggling to get this one right, feedback appreciated.
https://i.redd.it/akva5y0d2r1h1.png
Posted by LearnBitcoinCom
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I value introductory stuff that is technically correct, even if that is subtly so. So, “leaves” Bitcoin Mainnet isn’t technically correct. It’s locked up there. Exactly how to explain that is a good question. Locked and swapped or maybe “contracted” over? Maybe have a look through ‘bridging’ as described in defi, since it’s the same conceptual thing. They might have figured out good ways of explaining it.
I would also avoid implying there’s some inevitability about the channels being closed and instead say *if* the channel is closed. I think one of the great miscommunications in lightning educational material has been the idea that the channels are expected to be closed at some point. The classic example of finishing your bar tab at the end of the night has created a misunderstanding that you do this on a kind of daily basis, and so a lot of people think lightning isn’t a scaling solution say things like ‘you need to do two base transactions just to do one lightning transaction’.
Base chain is the issuance layer. Lightning is for consumer transactions. But some transactions also occur on base chain. The types of transactions we expect to see on base chain as lightning becomes more successful are bitcoin being locked up in lightning contracts as part of channel opening or rebalancing, and to a lesser extent channels closing.
At least, that’s how I understand it.