Glossary · deep dive

BOLT

Basis of Lightning Technology: the open specifications all Lightning implementations follow.

BOLT stands for Basis of Lightning Technology. The BOLTs are the shared, open specifications for the Lightning Network, for example BOLT 2 (channels), BOLT 4 (onion routing) and BOLT 11 (invoices).

Because several independent teams follow the same specs, their nodes can open channels with each other and route payments.

Takeaway: Lightning is an open protocol, not one company's product.