BTC core developer exits the Lightning Network due to "difficulties."

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Security researcher and BTC core developer Antoine Riard has left the development of the Lightning Network due to security concerns and fundamental challenges facing the Bitcoin ecosystem. According to a thread on the Linux Foundation's public mailing list, Riard believes that the Bitcoin community is facing "difficult circumstances" as a new type of replacement loop attack puts the Lightning Network in a "precarious position." The Lightning Network enables users to open payment channels, conduct multiple off-chain transactions, and settle the final results on the Bitcoin blockchain. The replacement loop attack targets these payment channels, presenting a new kind of threat in which attackers can exploit inconsistencies between different mempools to siphon funds from channel participants. Riard stated, "I believe that this new type of replacement loop attack puts Lightning in a very precarious situation, which can only be sustainably fixed at the base layer, for example by adding memory-intensive historical records of all visible transactions or some consensus upgrade. The deployed mitigations are valuable against simple attacks, although I believe they do not deter advanced attackers as effectively as the first complete disclosure email claims."