Could this be ported to bitcoin lightning ?
Not directly. State channels are similar to lightning, but there's a key difference:
* in lightning each payment is routed through the network independently, requiring participation from the intermediary nodes
* in a state channel the intermediary nodes are used to establish a channel and then the payments are direct
The upshot is that in state channels, once the connection is established, the payments are truly peer-to-peer, and don't need any interaction with a third party.
We use this property in Web3Torrent, as the payments are sent directly peer-to-peer on top of the webtorrent messaging layer. This wouldn't be possible with lightning, though you could probably find another way to accomplish something similar.
It used to be just like payment channels, but with a bigger scope and more fancy state operations.
The trick with avoiding multiparties was called "virtual state channels" or something like that. When did it change?
Lightning channels are 2 end points, p2p.
Lightning routes are a sequence of lightning channels. Routes are also 2 end points, also p2p. No trusted is required for intermediaries.
Every internet packet, unless it is you to your lan router, passes through many intermediaries. I have no idea how ethereum state channels work, but I assume they route using tcp/ip, and statechannel team understands this as p2p.
So anyway, lightning is p2p.
Cheers.
https://standardcrypto.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/a16z-struggl...
Nice idea anyways, great to see people experimenting in the space!