Lightning Labs Launches Taproot Assets on Lightning Network

• "Today we're excited to announce the release of Taproot Assets on Lightning, the first multi-asset Lightning protocol on mainnet," announced Ryan Gentry is a blog post.

"With this release, assets can be minted on bitcoin and sent via the Lightning Network instantly for low fees. As such, we now have the ability to make bitcoin and Lightning multi-asset networks in a scalable manner anchored in bitcoin's security and decentralization."

• "To get started building with Taproot Assets on Lightning, developers should download the latest version of the litd suite and use it in integrated mode. The litd bundle combines lnd, tapd, and a number of liquidity services into a single binary, providing the most straightforward way to integrate multi-asset Lightning."

"Note that while this release supports mainnet, the alpha tag indicates that we advocate the community to be measured in its deployment. These cutting-edge features and integrations are relatively new to real-world testing and may not yet be ready for production-deployment mainnet use at scale. We encourage developers to experiment with these new capabilities with caution."

• "For a more extensive explanation on how Taproot Assets works, take a deep dive into our documentation."

What's new

• Developers can now access the full suite of Lightning functionality for Taproot Assets: opening/closing channels, making instant, low-fee payments, atomically swapping assets for bitcoin, forwarding Taproot Assets Lightning payments, and more. The release also provides an enhanced feature set for on-chain operations.
• Multi-Asset Lightning on Mainnet. "This latest release includes all the functionality needed for multi-hop Taproot Assets payments routed across the Lightning Network through bitcoin. APIs for opening Taproot Assets channels, generating asset invoices, and paying asset invoices have been included."
• Request for Quote (RFQ) service. "One new capability, introduced with the Taproot Assets Lightning integration, is the ability for edge nodes, which are routing nodes that bridge Taproot Assets users with the broader Lightning Network, to negotiate rates for atomic swaps between Taproot Assets and bitcoin while forwarding payments."

• Trustless On-Chain Swaps. "Taproot Assets users and developers can atomically swap assets for bitcoin or other Taproot Assets via Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs)."

• First-Class Multi-Sig Support for More Advanced Ownership Solutions. "This release includes first-class multi-sig support for advanced custody options at every layer of Taproot Asset ownership. Users will also be able to back up time-locked cold keys in the event their hot keys are destroyed. This addition will allow for the developer and issuer community to build with security at the forefront using existing, familiar methodologies."
• Secure Asset Issuance in Multiple Tranches. "Taproot Assets provides native support for assets issued in multiple tranches (e.g. stablecoins) wherein the tranches are intended to be fungible."
  • "The latest feature enhancement for group_key assets brings scripting functionality during the minting process. Issuers are now empowered with the ability to require a multi-sig threshold before minting, or to programmatically rate limit how much of an asset is issued, improving their ability to secure the issuance process."

Full Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo (tapd)
GitHub Repo (Litd)