Lightning, channels, DLCs, and layered systems

Understand off-chain enforcement and its on-chain escape hatches.

Follow these 8 lessons in order, or choose the topic you need. Each lesson combines an explanation, a worked example and practice inside the Guild.

1. Payment channels

   Pre-signed state updates let parties transact off chain while retaining an enforceable on-chain settlement path.

   Open lesson

2. Lightning commitments

   Revocable commitments, HTLCs, timelocks, and justice or replacement mechanisms manage unilateral closes.

   Open lesson

3. Routing and liquidity

   Multi-hop payments use onion routing and conditional transfers but depend on directional channel liquidity.

   Open lesson

4. Watchtowers and backups

   Offline protection and channel-state recovery address different failure modes and have distinct trust assumptions.

   Open lesson

5. DLCs

   Discreet Log Contracts use oracle attestations and adaptor signatures so outcomes settle without revealing the full contract logic on chain.

   Open lesson

6. Federations and sidechains

   Pegged systems trade different custody, consensus, and exit assumptions for additional functionality.

   Open lesson

7. Ark and shared UTXOs

   Emerging protocols explore coordinated UTXO ownership and efficient exits with new availability assumptions.

   Open lesson

8. Layer comparison

   Experts compare custody, unilateral exit, data availability, capital efficiency, privacy, and failure recovery rather than relying on labels.

   Open lesson