BCH Devs Publish Bi-Directional Payment Concept Based on IPFS

On Friday, Openbazaar and Bchd developer, Chris Pacia, revealed a new Bchd project feature currently in the making that would allow for Bitcoin Cash-based bi-directional payment channels. Moreover, in contrast to the Lightning Network, the Bchd developers explained that the team has created an overlay network based on the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS).

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A Generic Overlay Network Based on IPFS Built for Bitcoin Cash

The Bchd developer Chris Pacia has published a Medium post explaining a new bi-directional payment channel protocol for the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network which they hope will be complete by early next year.

Pacia and fellow contributors at the Bchd project just recently published the client’s library and wallet. The following day, the programmers released the Neutrino wallet which can enhance BCH privacy. Bi-directional payment channels are used in unison with the Bitcoin Core (BTC) network which allows the Lightning Network (LN) participants to exchange micropayments. However, some people consider LN not very user-friendly and others have criticized its security due to routing complications. Instead, the programmers built a generic overlay network based on IPFS’s libp2p. IPFS is a network that enables a more decentralized peer-to-peer method of allocating hypermedia in a distributed fashion.

The open source Gcash overlay implementation, which is based on the modular network stack Libp2p, can be found on Github. According to Pacia, it offers features like extensible peer identities, encrypted and authenticated connections, protocol multiplexing, stream multiplexing, and distributed hashtable technology (DHT) techniques. The Gcash overlay section of the repository states that “using the overlay network in your app is dirt simple.” Further, the applications that could benefit from this type of overlay connection would be peer-to-peer gambling apps, atomic swap protocols, coin mixers, wallet-to-wallet communication, and basic payment channel protocols. There will also be Tor integration and at the moment Bchd developers need to connect Tor as an optional transport.

‘Nothing Stopping All Bitcoin Cash Apps From Being Interconnected’

The idea was well received by Bitcoin Cash proponents on r/btc, with many from the community offering Pacia feedback in regard to the protocol’s functionality. One commenter said that “Bchd is really making a run for best BCH implementation.” In the Bchd Medium post it links to some examples on how to “register a custom protocol, store and retrieve data from the DHT, and publish data over pubsub.”

The blog post continues:

There is also a compatible javascript version of libp2p that can run entirely in the browser. Making a javascript version of the overlay network should be really easy as the entirety of the library is only 614 lines of code.

The Bchd developers wholeheartedly believe there is nothing that can deter BCH applications from communication and interconnectivity. The programmers hope other developers are interested in pursuing this path and conclude that if people have any feedback to contribute or questions to feel free to reach out.

What do you think about the idea of an overlay network for the Bitcoin Cash blockchain that allows for bi-directional payment channels and DHT technology? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Images via Shutterstock, IPFS logo, Pixabay, and Bitcoin.com.

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