LNP/BP Core Library

This is Rust library implementing LNP/BP specifications https://github.com/LNP-BP/LNPBPs. It can be used to simplify development of layer 2 & 3 solutions on top of Lightning Network and Bitcoin blockchain.

The current list of such projects include:

• RGB: Confidential smart contracts for Bitcoin & Lightning
• LNP node: Experimental rust-based modular Lightning network node
• BP node: Indexing service for bitcoin blockchain; more efficient & universal Electrum server replacement

The planned projects:

• Spectrum: Decentralized exchange for Lightning Network
• Storm: Incentivised trustless storage and messaging
• Prometheus: Decentralized trustless computing

Potentially, with LNP/BP Core library you can simplify the development of

• Discreet log contracts
• Implement experimental lightning features
• Do complex multi-threaded or elastic/dockerized client-service microservice architectures

To learn more about the technologies enabled by the library please check:

• RGB Technology Guide
• Networking with LNP
• LNP/BP Nodes Initiative

The development of the library projects is supported by LNP/BP Standards Association.

Library functionality

The library provides the code for:

• Improvements & utilities for Bitcoin protocol
• Deterministic commitments that can be embedded into for Bitcoin transactions and public keys
• Single-use seals
• Client-side validation
• Lightning networking protocol (LNP)
• Generalized lightning network

This code supports both Bitcoin blockchain and Lightning network.

Project structure

The library is built as a single Rust crate with the following top-level mods:

• common: traits, structures, functions and generics which are used by all parts of the project
• paradigms: generic paradigms (API best practices) which are not bitcoin-specific
• bp: Bitcoin protocol extensions external to Bitcoin Core functionality and existing BIPs. These may also cover those of LNPBP standards which are not specific for other layers.
• lnp: Lightning Network protocol extensions: networking, generalized lightning channels and better layerization of BOLT specifications
• rgb: smart contracts for Bitcoin and Lightning network based client-side validation, deterministic bitcoin commitments and single-use seals.
• lnpbps: other LNPBPs standard implementation which does not fit into any of the categories above

The library is based on other projects:

• rust-bitcoin and it's dependencies
  • bitcoin_hashes
  • rust-secp256k1
  • rust-secp256k1-zkp for Pedersen commitments and Bulletproofs used in confidential state inside RGB protocols
• rust-lightning

Install

Get the dependencies

On Debian, run

sudo apt-get install cargo

On Mac OS, run

brew cargo

Clone and compile library

git clone https://github.com/lnp-bp/rust-lnpbp
cd rust-lnpbp
cargo build --release

The library can be found in target/release directory.

You can run tests with:

cargo test

Please refer to the cargo documentation for more detailed instructions.

Use library in other projects

Include this line into your Cargo.toml file:

lnpbp = { git = "https://github.com/lnp-bp/rust-lnpbp.git", branch = "master" }

Use command-line tool for LNP/BP:

We have developed a command-line tool lbx which implements most of this library functionality, so it can be accessed and played with. Download it and build according to the instructions in https://github.com/lnp-bp/lbx

More information

Policy on Altcoins/Altchains

Altcoins and "blockchains" other than Bitcoin blockchain/Bitcoin protocols are not supported and not planned to be supported; pull requests targeting them will be declined.

Licensing

See LICENCE file.