Blockchain house Lightning Labs drafted the specifications of a new Lightning Network-based authentication system that could replace traditional electronic mail-based accounts.

According to a March 30 announcement, the Lightning Service Hallmark Tokens (LSAT) is a new authentication protocol for paid services. The arrangement issues Lightning-based tokens for users afterward they paid for the service in Bitcoin (BTC) instead of providing their personal information for traditional email-based accounts.

The lightning tokens in question human activity as tickets for the purchased resources and encode what resource it grants access to. The tokens can be exchanged, revoked and modified after being issued. LSAT also reportedly allows for applications that charge users on an ongoing ground for resources instead of periodic upfront payments.

The forgotten status code

LSAT leverages the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) condition code 402, meant to warn the user's web browser that payment is required to access the service. While developers are familiar with status codes like 404, which is sent when a customer is requesting a resource that is not institute on the server, has seen little use. According to Mozilla, it has no standard utilise convention. The announcement explains:

"Every bit the name entails, this code is returned when a client attempts to admission a resource that they haven't paid for yet. In near versions of the HTTP specification, this lawmaking is marked every bit existence 'reserved for hereafter use.' Many speculate that it was intended to be used past some sort of digital cash or micropayment scheme, which didn't nevertheless exist at the fourth dimension of the initial HTTP specification drafting."

As Lightning Labs points out, at present digital cash does exist in the form of Bitcoin, and then the status lawmaking can be used as intended. The implementation of such a system could create a seamless way to pay for and immediately admission web services without needing accounts. The announcement describes how a web with such an integration would work:

"In this new web, email addresses and passwords are a thing of the past. Instead cryptographic bearer credentials are purchased and presented by users to admission services and resources. In this new web, credit cards no longer serve every bit a gatekeeper to all the astonishing experiences that accept been created on the web."

The promises of web 3.0

Many in the blockchain industry advocate for web 3.0 technology as it is believed equally a manner to make the internet more democratic, open and private. Furthermore, a November 2022 Cointelegraph analysis as well suggests that web 3.0 developments tin can as well drive cryptocurrency adoption to new heights.

Earlier this month, the Web3 foundation issued a grant to interoperability project Interlay for bringing Bitcoin on the Polkadot platform.