Raiden’s team, one off-chain Ethereum expansion solution, Realizing fast, low-cost and scalable token transfer, today announced the Bespin version of Raiden Network. This Bespin version (the third major version) is the next step towards a mature Raiden network.

“The main focus of the Bespin version is stability, especially the stability of the transport layer. Last year, the transport layer brought the team some long debugging sessions, so we are very happy to finally have a stable transport layer. We are very excited. Another thing is that the Bespin version on the mainnet will soon be released on the mainnet Lightning Light client. We encourage anyone interested in making fast, cheap and scalable payments on Ethereum to try Bespin.”
– Raiden Network Team

what’s new

For a brief overview of the new important updates, see below:

• Added UDC deposit/withdrawal endpoint — This makes it easier to deposit and withdraw money in UDC contracts, which is necessary to use the Raiden service package.
• Support the latest Ethereum client
• Support Python 3.9
• Faster synchronization time — When Raiden is launched, it needs to synchronize with the blockchain to ensure that it understands all related chain events. This process used to be very slow, but with Bespin, the time required for synchronization has been significantly reduced.
• New “Quick Connect” function — WebUI introduces a feature to provide users with a list of recommended nodes to open channels. This makes it fast and easy to connect to the network and maintain the best topology.
• Removed the “Join Token Network” endpoint — This feature has been removed from the API, but it is recommended to use the above feature.
• Refund transfer deleted -This was originally intended to quickly unlock funds if the transfer is not completed.
• Remove matrix room -The use of the matrix room has been removed. This reduces the load on the Matrix server and increases the reliability of the transport layer. In addition, this improves Raiden’s privacy, as channel balances are now only visible to RSB and channel partners.

You can find the complete update log of the Bespin version Here.

Bug bounty

Currently, there is still a bug bounty program for Alderaan smart contracts. Bespin uses the same deployed smart contract. This bug bounty has a pool of $200,000 and will continue.

Deprecation of Alderaan

Although Bespin uses the same smart contract deployed for Alderaan, the channels are not compatible. This means that users should close and resolve open channels before upgrading to Bespin.

Functional limitations of the Bespin version

The token network cannot be upgraded: The Bespin version does not include the upgradeability of smart contracts. In other words, the only way to upgrade the network is to redeploy the new contract; and release a new client version that points to the new contract. All channels in the old network need to be closed and reopened in the new network.