I do not assume LN may be very a lot linked to ElementsProject. One way or the other they’ve comparable intent: scaling bitcoin. Nevertheless they do it in very other ways.
Parts is a federated sidechain, a one way or the other full blockchain that bases elements of its safety to a federation of entities that create blocks that pegs to the bitcoin blockchain every so often. Being a separate blockchain, it may well assist various things than bitcoin: confidential transactions, belongings, simplicity script, and many others. Furthermore, since blocks are created by the federation and there’s no mining, blocktime could be a lot shorter (~1s), which results in low charges and quick settlement.
Lightning Community as an alternative doesn’t depend on considerably trusted entities to scale bitcoin. It goals to construct a cost channel community as a layer on prime of bitcoin, counting on it only for the settlement of controversies. It really works one way or the other nicely, but it surely brings in fairly a little bit of complexity and it modifications a bit the safety mannequin we have been used with on the bottom layer. To maintain funds secure, a LN node needs to be “all the time” on-line or to delegate to exterior entities (referred to as watchtowers) the job to regulate the blockchain to guard your funds.
Curiously, there’s a good venture underneath improvement that goals to bling most of Factor’s particular performance on prime of naked bitcoin and LN via the idea of client-side validation. You could find one thing extra on RGB right here and right here
