Markethive

Forgive Those Who Hurt You Long Ago

No matter how difficult a situation, you can remember that God wants us to forgive one another “just as God through Christ has forgiven you”

Written by Hope on 07/07/2013
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Forgiveness, Hurt
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)

When someone hurts you or you experience an injustice, God knows about it. In fact, of course, He knows every wrong that has ever occurred on earth, as well as the good things. "His understanding has no limit" (Psalm 147:5), and He knows that, as with all human action, "it has all been done before" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Earthly Injustice
King Solomon wrote, “I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless” (Ecclesiastes 4:1). He noticed that people should not “be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land” (Ecclesiastes 5:8). He said this because, "not a single person on earth is always good and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20), so we need to recognize that we, too, are sinners in need of forgiveness.

God's Justice
No matter how difficult a situation, you can remember that God wants us to forgive one another “just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ecclesiastes 4:32). And because “The Lord loves righteousness and justice”(Psalm 33:5) , you can rely on God to help you overcome injustice by being a loving and forgiving person. It will probably be difficult, but “those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble” (Ecclesiastes 8:5-6).

Prayer, Care, and Share Jesus
Have bad things ever happened to you or the people close to you? Whether these things have happened recently or long ago, we know God is very serious about us forgiving others, just as in Christ, God forgave us.

Maybe you’ve experienced something like this or similar:

Somebody caused an accident and someone close to you died or was injured for life;
A parent, school teacher or another authority figure abused you or someone close to you;
A criminal killed or injured someone close to you in a robbery or attack;
Someone close to you betrayed you. Whether or not you know the person that hurt you, your friend or family member, it is very tempting to harbor anger, hate or bitterness towards them — even if you’re close to God.
There’s nothing wrong with feeling angry in your loss. Jesus understands your pain and anger because He suffered on your behalf. Because of the sacrifice He made for you, and the forgiveness He has already granted you, Jesus asks you to forgive people who bring hurt and pain into your life.

You may not even know where to start when you realize you need to forgive someone. You might ask, “How can I forgive?” Well, here are some suggestions:

Realize and accept you have the anger or bitterness in your heart about the incident (however deeply buried in your memory;
Accept from the Scripture that you have to forgive as you are forgiven;
Surrender the hurt and anger to Jesus in prayer — If possible, pray this out loud with a friend
Forgive the person(s) in the Name of Jesus;
Start praying the Lord's blessing on the person that you need to forgive.
A Helpful Tip: Don't worry if you don't know the name of the person that wronged you or if they may not even be alive now. Forgive them anyway — the Lord knows them. If the process is very difficult, — get help from trusted friend or a counselor.

Pray this week:
You will forgive people who hurt you and start to pray for the Lord to bless them.

Roots of bitterness grow deep and spread to cover all areas of a person's life. Have you chosen to 'forgive' those who have done evil to you in your past? You should ask God to forgive them for you and through you. Forgiveness is for your healing. Do you have a situation you're having a hard time with? Talk to a caring Christian about it.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Why Should We Forgive Others?

Forgive Others as God Has Forgiven You

 

 

“A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” Luke 7:41-42 (NLT)

 

Once Jesus shared a meal with a very judgmental person. He used this story to show that a person who understands their debt and receives forgiveness will have great love for the one who forgives. Being judgmental and unforgiving shows that you have little regard for God’s forgiveness.

Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You (Luke 6:31)

Jesus tells a story about a man who loaned money to two people and then cancels both debts. (Luke 7:41-42) One person owed more money than the other, so Jesus asked “Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” Simon answers, “the one who had the bigger debt forgiven,” and Jesus agrees (Luke 7:43).

Jesus said, “a person who is forgiven little shows only little love” (Luke 7:47). That shouldn’t sound like you or me. We should think of ourselves as the first person in the story rather than the second. Our debt is sin instead of money. God is perfect, holy and righteous. Any sin against Him deserves punishment, but He canceled our debt. When it’s time to forgive others, remember the huge debt of sin God canceled for you and forgive.

We All Need Forgiveness

Many people don’t think they need forgiveness. They might think, “My sins are small compared to THAT person. I’ve never committed murder or adultery.” But God has a higher standard. Jesus tells us that even being angry with another makes us guilty of murder, and looking lustfully at someone is equivalent to adultery (Matthew 5:21-22; Matthew 5:28).

This shows we all need forgiveness. The Bible goes on to say, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). And, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Forgive Others Because Christ Forgave You (Ephesians 4:32)

Jesus died on the cross and forgave us from a debt we could not repay. Are you grateful for His sacrifice? I know I am. When others hurt you and sin, remember that you and I have hurt a perfect God. Instead of God being angry with us, He forgave us. We should treat others the exact same way.

When we forgive others, it is a small picture of God’s forgiveness. We can even make it an opportunity to share the gospel by saying: “Because God has forgiven my sins through Jesus Christ, I am able to forgive you.

Pray this week:

Lord, please help me to remember the gift of forgiveness you’ve give me when I need to forgive others. Help me to joyfully forgive others just as you have forgiven me.

Is there someone in your life, whether in the past or present that you should forgive?

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Forgiving Others in the Church

How can I forgive someone who keeps hurting me?

Written by Ruth on 21/08/2018
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Church, Church And Community, Forgiveness, Reconciliation
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32
Is this true for you? — someone at the church you attend bothers you so much that sometimes you would just rather stay home from church! 

Does an “enemy” keep you away from church?
The day before He died, Jesus told His disciples that the most important command He was giving them was to love each other (John 15:12-17). During the whole final evening with them, He was preparing them for life after His death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven (John 13-17). He had kept them together as His disciples for the past three years, and now they needed to know how they could remain together even though they would be spread to different parts of the world. Jesus’ answer was love for one another, which would unite them.

We also need help in loving each other, even when there are disagreements among us in the church. The disciples had missed Jesus’ point so often, argued with one another and hoped to gain advantage over one another. (Luke 22:24-30). Without Him walking with them, would selfishness and bitterness divide them? Not if they listened to what He said. He told His disciples they must always forgive each other, and this is what we, too, must do. We must not allow anger and bitterness to grow. When that happens, we become ineffective witnesses for Him.

How am I to forgive another Christian who hurts me?
Jesus was committing His disciples to one another as an eternal family. This means a few things:

First, it's pretty much impossible to avoid offending others in this life, so we should not pretend we're never offensive. Siblings don't always get along. But they never stop being family. What does it take to maintain peace? You have to go to someone who feels wronged—even if you don't know what you did wrong. Jesus even gave this priority over our worship in Matthew 5:23-24.

Second, because we know we've done things that give others reason to be offended, forgive others. They may not even know what they did wrong. Go to them. Be persistent and patient. (Matthew 18:15-22) Jesus never runs out of forgiveness for us; we have to be the same way.

Why should I forgive, even when they are not sorry?
One of my dear friends was the victim of a conspiracy in her family. Divorced and raising two children on her own had made life a struggle, but then her father and younger sister agreed to bypass her in the inheritance of some family property. It caused her to curse and forsake her family for years. She even emigrated to another country in order to make an irreversible break in her family relationships. 

But then, something happened to change her mind. She found Jesus. It was a few years before she reconciled with her family. They didn't recompense her for the lost property or years of hard work. But when God changed her life, He gave her first the desire, then later, the actual power, to forgive. Looking back, she now sees clearly how unforgiveness is really what hurt her and cost her the most. It really wasn't until she released her hold on it that she herself was free.

When Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15 that we cannot be forgiven if we do not forgive others, He was telling us two things: 1) not forgiving someone is disobedience to Him, and 2) we cannot see our own need for forgiveness if we keep anger and bitterness in our hearts. In essence, forgiving someone is more about our relationship with Jesus than with that person. 

How do we forgive when we do not feel like doing so? Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. We must choose to obey. It may be that we must say to Jesus, “I do not want to forgive because that makes what they did right, and it was not right! But I want to be near You more than I want to keep this anger, so I choose to forgive. Help me, Lord Jesus!” Then, the next time you remember what they did or you see them at church or anywhere else, you can simply say to Jesus, “I have given this to You, I will not take it back.” It will not be long before you realize you are free from the slavery of what this person did. You are free from anger and bitterness. You are free to do or say whatever Jesus asks you to say to them with peace in your heart (Philippians 4:7, and Luke 12:11-12).

Pray this week:
Lord Jesus, I have trouble forgiving ___ in my church. I choose to obey You because I need Your peace more than I need proof of being right or even worldly justice. I give this situation into Your hands; help me to leave it with You. Help me also to speak Your words to them so we may be reconciled to each other for the work of Your kingdom.
 

Who do you need to forgive and reconcile with?

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Founders Positions STILL Available- with this U are SET FOR LIFE This is TOTALLY PASSIVE INCOME

Hello Teammates

Thank you again for joining The Stellar Association / Yiggiy with me. It just keeps getting more and more exciting as launch day draws closer. If you haven’t been following what is going on, you might want to listen to the members-only call we had Saturday the 18th. I know I had to talk some of you into joining, but I hope you see the Big Picture now ––> those of us who have Founders Positions with this are SET FOR LIFE. This is TOTALLY PASSIVE INCOME, which you will receive every month forever. It comes from the royalties earned on the intellectual property this business owns, just like someone who writes a book gets a royalty on every copy that is sold ….. You know how that works. Same thing.

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They announced on that call that sales of the Founders Positions for the Second group will be stopped next Saturday, the 25th, at 3 PM EST. If there is enough demand, they will consider opening a Third batch of positions, but there is no guarantee of that, and it is looking very unlikely at this point.   http://www.theassociation.website/index.html?Ref=RBM24-FE53P

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If you can swing it to take another position or two, you’ll really be thanking yourself when they start paying this fall. Just think how much more you can do with two or three or five times as much totally passive income. This will probably be the last time I contact you about this, although I may send it out again to be sure you got it. You only have until Saturday the 25th at 3 PM EST to decide how much future passive income you want to receive, how much income you want to retire with, and lock it in.

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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Serving the Body

How can we use our spiritual gifts to serve the Church?

Written by Ruth on 24/10/2017
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Church And Community
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24-25
Have you ever wondered why you should be part of a church? The Bible says in Hebrews 10:24-25 that gathering with other believers is something we should not neglect.

What is so important about church?
Jesus wants us, as a member of a local church, to complete the ministry He began while He was on earth. He wants you to be part of this ministry. But none of us can do this on our own. We need Him as our leader (our Head), and all the rest of the body (other believers) to get the mission accomplished as He has planned. None of us can do it alone, but all our abilities together are used by Him for His purpose. Here’s how you can be a healthy part of the body:

Encouraging each other
First, church is meant for mutual encouragement. In Hebrews 10:23 we read God’s desire for us to “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering.” None of us can do that by ourselves because our enemy, Satan, attacks us more when we are alone. Our responsibility to other believers is to encourage them to keep following Jesus closely.

Completing what he began
Second, Jesus left us a task to do. Just before He returned to heaven after His resurrection, He said we were to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:20). He says He is “not wishing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), but no one can know Him unless someone tells them.

In John 14:12, Jesus also said that the Church would do “greater works” than He had done while He was here. None of us who follow Him can accomplish this in our own strength. We, the Church, are called His body and are left on earth now so He can do in the whole world what He did in one region while He was here.

For this reason Jesus gives gifts (called spiritual gifts in the Bible) to each person in the church to help with this task. We read the lists of spiritual gifts in passages such as Ephesians 4:11-12. Alone, we cannot complete all the duties Jesus wants to do, but together we can. Jesus’ body, the Church has different parts just as a body has — ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet, and so on — and each part is important to completing the task. Each of us, with the spiritual gifts He has given us, have our own work to do.

Strength in unity
Third, we as believers must work together. We cannot work as a body if we are not in agreement with each other. The Bible calls this “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:1-6). Hands cannot help a person in need if the feet will not take them to that person. The heart cannot love someone if the ears have not heard the one who needs encouragement. The arms cannot lift a heavy burden for another if the legs and back do not help with balance and strength.

Jesus gave His disciples, including us today, a wonderful promise in Matthew 16:18 — that the very gates of hell cannot stop what He wants to accomplish. Gates are not attack weapons, but instead used to keep someone out or in. The gates of hell are pictured because Satan wants to keep people from hearing Jesus’ words of hope and follow Him. However, his gates cannot stop us from entering his strongholds to tell them.

There will be times, however, as we enter those gates to invite people to follow us to Jesus, that we will be injured by Satan’s attacks. In those times, the Church — the body of Christ — rushes to help the injured one. We bind the wounds, encourage the disheartened and give strength to those who have suffered in the attacks.

Discovering your spiritual gifts
Finally, every believer is given at least one spiritual gift with which they serve Jesus’ body in a local church. It is our duty to use each gift we are given to help the local body in the church we attend. (1 Peter 4:10)

How do we discover our spiritual gifts? A few will hear God’s call to become pastors. Others will be asked to do something and discover joy in fulfilling that task. Many will try different things to find what gives them the greatest satisfaction as they serve Jesus in their church — encouraging others, giving someone a verse of wisdom when someone is searching for answers, visiting the sick and praying with them, helping a disabled person by taking them to the grocery store and carrying their bags home, or even greeting a foreigner with a word of welcome in their own language. In doing this, you will be serving the body while also finding how God has crafted you best to serve.

Pray this week:
Father, as my love for you grows, teach me also to love my church and use the way you’ve prepared me to bless and build others within it.

What do you do in church that helps others?

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Why Do I Have to Go to Church?

s it enough to just follow Jesus?

Written by GodLife on 02/05/2017
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Church, Membership, Gifts, Baptism, Fellowship
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1 Corinthians 12:27
Did God give us a list of steps we must take before we can go on to maturity? In a way, yes! An interesting Bible passage warns us not to get stuck in our growth, but to move on to maturity. In doing this, it actually gives us seven “basic things” mature believers need to understand clearly. It begins with our personal relationship with God. It moves to our earthly identification with God’s people. And it ends with the ultimate heavenly destiny of all God’s people.

Are you ready for a tour? Turn to Hebrews 6 and follow carefully along.

Just You and God
“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…” (Hebrews 6:1)

Every follower of Jesus needs to clearly know Who He is. He’s “the only Son, who is truly God” (John 1:18). He loves us so much that He left heaven to live under His own Law. He was tempted in every way, but He remained perfect and sinless. He suffered rejection, mockery and a cruel execution to take the punishment our sins deserve. He said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30) when He died, and His resurrection proved it was true.

For this “once for all” sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10-14) to work for me, I had to realize all I ever did only increased my guilt. My works were “deeds that bring death.” If there were any other way for me to escape hell, “it was useless for Christ to die” (Galatians 2:21). Believe this, pray humbly to receive Him, and trust that He’s able to save you forever, and you become a child of God (Hebrews 7:25; John 6:37).

You and the “local church” — the people of God near you
“And we shouldn’t need to keep teaching about baptisms or about the laying on of hands…” Hebrews 6:2a

As the passage implies, God did not save you simply so that you could enjoy eternal life. As His child, you’re part of a family with a mission. Not to keep teaching already-saved people the same things over and over, but to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19) But until a new believer has been baptized, he or she needs to be taught.

Water baptism is a public ceremony identifying you with Jesus and the other “called-out” people of God (that’s what “church” means). In order to do this, you have to have fellowship with other Christians, even if it’s only with one or two other people who follow Jesus. “Laying on of hands” takes it a step farther — this means publicly choosing and sending someone out for service. God empowers each believer “so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong” (Ephesians 4:12).

You and the “universal church” — the whole family in heaven and earth (Ephesians 3:15)
Finally, the passage ends with two more important points: “…the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:2b).

When Jesus returns, there will be a resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58). Believers who have died will be raised and united with those still living on earth. This is so that, in heaven, the work of the entire Church can be judged at once by Him (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5), and He can “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7).

In this lesson, it’s easy to see that we’re not meant to live the Christian life alone. You might be able to think of exceptions: missionaries who travel to places where there is no church. Isolated believers in countries where Christians are persecuted. Those whose family members do not allow them to attend. But these are the special cases, because those who are denied church fellowship are the very ones who want it most! Christian children whose parents do not take them to church long to know what it is like. Isolated believers do their best to meet in secret or find a substitute, like broadcast or online services. Remote missionaries are going for the very purpose of establishing a church.

As Hebrews 6:1-2 shows us, there really is no way to move on to Christian maturity, to serve in the role for which God has called and empowered you, to accomplish the deeds for which He deserves praise in heaven, without being a part of an assembly of believers.

Pray this week:
Father, will you teach me everything I need to know about being a member of the Body of Christ?

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

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You can become a Founder. Positions Still Available — This WILL BE HUGE !!! GET YOUR SHARE NOW AT: 
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Italy’s Economic Pain Is the Bitcoin Price’s Gain

Italy's Economic Pain Is the Bitcoin Price's Gain

Italy’s Economic Pain Is the Bitcoin Price’s Gain

 

Perhaps it took an economic crisis of another kind to lift the cryptocurrency markets. Italy’s economy is reeling amid a political crisis that has placed a spotlight on the cracks in the EU’s economic foundation.
 

Bitcoin Price Trends up as Italy’s Economy Falters

Italian bonds are going bust, and the negativity has spilled over into stocks as well. But as the global financial markets are reeling, bitcoin is finally beginning to see the light of day again, and it could just have something to do with the fact that a potential threat to the euro highlights the benefits of a decentralized currency like bitcoin.

 

The bitcoin price is currently trading above the $7,400 threshold after falling to a May low earlier in the day.

Reason to Rally

The cryptocurrency markets have been searching for a reason to rally, and many of us have been looking to the centralized governments of the world to provide that catalyst.
 

Meanwhile, the mechanics of the cryptocurrency markets are working just fine, and have pulled off a rally — albeit on modest trading volume — on a development that highlights the very strengths of a decentralized world. Bitcoin and its altcoin peers have proven once again the power of a digital currency that is not controlled by the central bank but instead the masses.
 

The crisis in Italy has placed a great deal of pressure on the euro, sending Europe’s common currency to its lowest levels against the USD in months. Italian bonds have similarly sold off amid the possibility of Europe’s third-largest economy staging a Brexit of its own. A decentralized currency like bitcoin becomes even more attractive when the common currency of Europe becomes unstable.
 

Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee cheered the crypto market’s response, telling Business Insider:
 

“To an extent, I think its good to see Bitcoin rallying with Gold, as the adverse developments in Italy and globally are pushing investors to risk-off. It’s good to see Bitcoin as an uncorrelated trade on a risk off day.”

 

Take the Latin American economy of Venezuela as an example. While the economic conditions in Venezuela are specific to the region, comprised of hyperinflation, food crisis and a broke government, the end result is a currency whose value has been destroyed. As a result, Venezuela’s currency was being exchanged for bitcoin at a record pace in mid-April, when more than $1 million in “bolivar-to-bitcoin” conversions occurred in a single day.
 

Italy’s fate in the EU has yet to unfold, and a snap election appears to be taking shape for the coming months there. In the meantime, it’s not just bitcoin that’s benefitting. Other leading digital currencies including ethereum, ripple, bitcoin cash and litecoin were all trading between 2%-4% higher while cardano soared nearly 10%.
 

AUTHOR Gerelyn Terzo CNN

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

A New Twist On Lightning Tech Could Be Coming Soon to Bitcoin

A New Twist On Lightning Tech Could Be Coming Soon to Bitcoin

Bitcoin's lightning network may be just starting to send transactions over the blockchain, but already its developers are looking to rearchitect the technology.
 

That's because, while touted as a way to significantly boost bitcoin's capacity, the network itself does require users to store a significant amount of data, which makes it difficult to download and run. As such, several lightning developers — Lightning Labs co-founder 'Laolu' Osuntokun and Blockstream's Christian Decker and Rusty Russell — have published a new proposal which imagines an alternative, "simplified" way of making off-chain transactions called eltoo.
 

But the new proposal isn't only about condensing the amount of data users need to store, it's also about keeping users' cryptocurrency safe.

 

For instance, all this data poses another problem in that if users accidentally broadcast older data, they might lose money. As such, this data has been coined "toxic information."
 

Eltoo, on the other hand, only stores the most recent off-chain transaction data, solving the well-known "information asymmetry" problem — that is if something happens to the device you're running your lightning app on — say your smartphone — you might lose access to the whole history of data.
 

"With eltoo, we reduce the risk of funds being swept away. We remove this toxic information," said Decker, who noted that the proposal's name is a joke of sorts — the phonetic spelling of "L2," which stands for layer-two, what many people call technology like lightning that pushes transactions off-chain.
 

And this is something Decker is very interested in since he's experienced the problem personally.
 

"This actually happened to me," he said, adding:
 

"I had an old lightning node on my laptop. I restored it. I didn't know I didn't have the newest state. The guy closed the connection because they knew it was an old state! Because he could steal it. Which he did, by the way."
 

All about revoking

Developers have long been trying to come up with a way for users to make a bunch of transactions using bitcoin, without bloating the blockchain with unnecessary data.
 

That's really what most of the scaling debates are all about.

 

But the first attempt to do this was way at the beginning of bitcoin's history when off-chain transaction capabilities were experimented with using so-called "sequence numbers" to keep track of which off-chain transaction is the most recent.
 

The idea was simple — if Alice has $10 and sends a $1 transaction to Bob, obviously her balance dwindles to $9.00. This then gets a sequence number "1." If later, she sends Bob $4, her balance is now $5, and this most recent transaction gets a sequence number "2."
 

But according to Decker, the mechanism "didn't work out," because miners didn't have any reason to enforce the rules and replace old transactions with the more recent ones.
 

Miners could just broadcast the one transaction where Alice's balance drops to $9 (even though she had made another transaction that dropped her balance to $5). While it's unclear why a miner might want or decide to not revoke a transaction for another one, they could decide to do so since there was no enforceability.
 

In this way, revoking old transactions in crucial otherwise Bob might not get the second transaction and Alice could run away with the money.
 

This "lack of enforceability" is a problem that wasn't solved until 2015.

 

And the lightning network is the best-known solution to this problem so far. Today, revoking old state is accomplished with the "L2-penalty" model — whereby a lightning wallet or node stores all of these intermediary states, then, if someone tries to broadcast an earlier, now-invalid state, this is detected and the cheating user is punished by losing money.

 

Eltoo and L2

But, three years on, the researchers are, in fact, going back to the idea of using sequence numbers to revoke old transactions.
 

Unlike bitcoin's old code, which didn't have an enforcement mechanism for these sequences, eltoo adds a procedure that makes every state update prescribed. Every state update — Alice sending Bob money, for instance — is composed of two transactions, each of which both parties store and which totally replace the prior update transaction.
 

"Only the last settlement transaction can ever be confirmed on the blockchain," the introductory blog post explains.
 

The tangential advantage of this system is that it increases lightning's scalability. With eltoo, each lightning node doesn't need to store all the intermediary states, rather, it stores only the most recent version and some information about the transaction itself, such as it's corresponding settlement transaction and potentially the HTLCs that spend from that settlement, the post notes.

What's perhaps the most beneficial part of the proposal, though, is that it isn't built on a "winner takes all" model.
 

Instead, eltoo and older L2 penalty schemes can be used side-by-side.

 

"Eltoo has quite different tradeoffs. I'm not implying it's better in all senses," Decker told CoinDesk, pointing to some arguments on the bitcoin developer mailing list about the technology increasing waiting times for transactions to be settled.
 

Still, overall, he's pretty excited about eltoo and the simplicity it brings, adding:

 

"We don't know which one is nicer, but I would like eltoo as the better option. I think eltoo is easier to explain and to extend later on."

 

Code obstacle

Not only are developers still discussing the proposal's merits, but there's another thing standing in the technology's way — "sighash_noinput."

 

This long-anticipated code option needs to be added to the bitcoin codebase for the cryptocurrency to be able to support eltoo (at least in an efficient form).
 

To understand why, it's important to know what the basic sighash function does. It works as a flag of sorts that specifies what part of the transaction data needs to be signed when it's transferred over to someone else. Users can choose from a range of options — for instance, the default flag, sighash_all, indicates that all parts of the transaction need to be signed, meaning that none of these parts can be changed throughout the process.
 

The proposed "sighash_noinput" function could flag that the "input" data going into a transaction doesn't need to be signed. And in turn, that the input data can change over time, from when the transaction was created to when it's written to the blockchain.
 

And this is exactly what eltoo needs, since the concept is that all the state in between the beginning and final transaction will be deleted, meaning the input will be different from the start and the end.
 

When asked whether he thinks the sighash_noinput proposal will get merged into the bitcoin codebase, Decker laughed and said, "Ever since SegWit, I stopped making these predictions."
 

He's pointing to the fact that Segregated Witness (SegWit) had broad support from the bulk of bitcoin's most active developers, but ended up stirring up a years-long battle within the community. The code change was only added to bitcoin last August, even though it was proposed more than two years prior.
 

Still, even though it's early, the sighash_noinput function is a relatively easy change to make to bitcoin's codebase, Decker said.
 

Plus, it's been theorized for some time that the change would have many positive implications for developers, he continued. Because of these potential benefits, a handful of Twitter users have begun adding the code change to their profiles to express their support, much like Twitter users did during the scaling debate (with #No2X becoming popular among those who were opposed to the Segwit2x initiative).
 

Remaining hopeful, Decker concluded:
 

"Every day new use cases join the sighash_noinput front."

 

Author Alyssa Hertig May 29, 2018 at 04:00 UTC

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member