OmniBOLT: Smart asset lightning network, off-chain contract system

OmniBOLT

3 min readMay 28, 2020

Author: Neo Carmack@ OmniLAB

What is OmniBOLT?

1. Lightning network for smart asset, issued on OmniBOLT via OmniLayer;

2. Build upon BTC/OmniLayer network, implements HTLC operations on the graph/network of Poon-Dryja channels;

3. Uses atomic swap to exchange assets among networks, lnd and obd;

4. Off chain smart contract written in Turing complete script languange for various finance scenarios. Easily embed into existing applications;

5. HD light client mechanism for secure wallet operations;

6. Lastest update: https://github.com/omnilaboratory/OmniBOLT-spec

Rationale of OmniBOLT

1. Build upon OmniLayer, proven secure, stable and anti-censor technology:

2. Constructs lightning channel by raw Omni/BTC transactions: a) Seemlessly work with omnicore, smart assets payloads and validation managed by omnicore; b) Lightning channel backed by 40+ transactions naturally operates assets without any extra cost of validation; c) Extends to popular public chains, including Etherium(soon future);

3. Scalability and speed proved by lightning theory;

4. HTLC chains asset channels to be a network, so that interoperation among assets networks is necessary. For example usdt network and btc network;

5. Much more flexible and extensible finance applications require quick and cheap smart asset/contract solutions like OmniBOLT;

Advantages of OmniBOLT

1. Technical ready. OBD testnet is online in May, 2020, and client API, which are highly similar to lnd client, is releasing, so that integration costs will be minimal;

2. Instant payment of smart assets issued on OmniLayer and Etherium(soon future) with the natural advantage of lightning theory.

3. Cross channel atomic swap of different assets.

4. Decentralized exchange on top of lightning channels with quick exchange speed and almost zero fee.

5. Collateral Lending Contract and more flexible contracts for various DeFi scenarios based on atomic swap, without any extra cost of transaction fee or any intermediary;

Architecture

OBD Client SDK

Light Client Adaption

1. Currently being released are websocket and javascript API package;

2. Function names are similar to LND clinet API, but not 100% the same, because OmniBOLT supports smart assets circulation and users shall be enabled to operates.

3. Learning curve will be smooth if one is already familar with LND.

4. For new comer, the materials from BOLT/LND community are excellent to be learned from, and all knowledges apply to OmniBOLT.

5. General knowledge of OmniLayer, Bitcoin and lightning network can be found in there own communities.