Asynchronous Payments

Asynchronous payments is a feature where transactions can be initiated even when the receiver is offline. For example in the lightning network, intermediary nodes could hold the payment securely until the receiver comes online to finalize the transaction by releasing a necessary secret.

As of now, async payments are not fully implemented in the Lightning Network. The traditional LN payment mechanism requires both the sender and receiver to be online simultaneously to complete a transaction. This poses a challenge for the scalability and utility of the network. Ongoing research and development aim to make asynchronous payments a reality. In contrast, traditional on-chainBitcoin transactions allow the receiver to be offline during the transaction, making them asynchronous.