Bakkt Launch
Introduction On September 23rd, Bakkt, a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) (owners of the New York Stock Exchange), launched the much anticipated bitcoin futures contract. What makes the Bakkt offering unique is that it is the first contract to …
Discreet Log Contracts Part 4: Security and Trust Model
So far in our Discrete Log Contracts series, we’ve covered what they are, how they work, and why they’re great. In this final post, we will enter into a practical discussion of the security and trust considerations involved when dealing …
Discreet Log Contracts Part 3: Why They Are Great
In previous posts, we discussed both what Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) are and how they work in detail. Now, let’s talk about the features of DLCs and how they make powerful oracle contracts. Part 1 – What is a Discreet …
Discreet Log Contracts Part 2: How They Work [OLD NON-ADAPTOR VERSION]
[THIS POST DESCRIBES THE OBSOLETE DLC EXECUTION MECHANISM, FOR UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION, SEE THE NEWER POST] In our last Discreet Log Contract post, we explored the problems faced by most existing smart contracts as well as what Discrete Log Contracts (DLCs) …
Cryptography Appendix
Bitcoin Public Keys: The elliptic curve used by Bitcoin is called secp256k1 and it is the curve y^2 = x^3 + 7 (it is actually the finite/discrete version of this but no need to get into that here). We define …
Discreet Log Contracts Part 1: What is a Discreet Log Contract?
Previously we have analyzed Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) at a high level and briefly walked through a specific contract executed between Blockstream and Crypto Garage. In this series we will be delving further into DLCs, looking at what they are, …
NFL API Updated To “PAID” Standard
We are pleased to announce our NFL Data API is now fully updated and available for the 2019 National Football League season. We will support all of our standard channels for all NFL Games, Players, Teams and Stats. Likewise, we …
Payment Points – Part 4: Selling Signatures
In our recent posts, we discussed all the benefits and features enabled by Payment Points on the Lightning Network. We explored how they can protect us from wormhole attacks and payment correlation, how they enable “stuckless” payments, and how they …
Payment Points Part 3: Escrow Contracts
In our previous post, we discussed a Lightning Network feature referred to as “Stuckless Payments” that requires Payment Points. Stuckless Payments allow users to attempt multiple payments concurrently. For an in depth description of Payment Points themselves and the problems …
Payment Points – Part 2: “Stuckless” Payments
In our previous post, we discussed how using pre-images and payment hashes to make lightning payments atomic results in the possibility of payment correlation and vulnerability to wormhole attacks. We also discussed how replacing pre-images and payment hashes with scalars …