[c-lightning] Some upcoming developments in c-lightning.

[Rusty Russell]

Hi all,

        Wanted to give everyone an idea of we're working on for the next
version of c-lightning.  This doesn't mean it'll definitely be in the
next version, of course!

1. Plugins support.

   c-lightning is supposed to be minimal, but naturally everyone wants
   more features.  Our solution to this is 'plugins': RPC commands
   which pass through to a separate program/daemon.  These plugins can
   be in any language, could be written by users themselves or third
   parties, and do far more sophisticated higher layer logic.  Christian
   is working on the infrastructure for these, Rusty plans to test it by
   moving 'pay' out to a plugin.

2. RPC enhancements.

   Developing plug-ins will probably involve RPC enhancements, in
   particular we don't have notifications at the moment.  Plugins may
   want to monitor events, but since our RPC interface tries to be
   stable, we'll have to proceed slowly here.

3. Reproducible builds.

   Lisa has headed down the rabbit hole to try to get c-lightning
   building reproducibly.  This is best-practice in the industry;
   bitcoind releases in particular come with a list of signatures of
   third parties who have verified the build (and you can do so
   yourself).  This is something of a stretch goal, but we'd like it
   eventually.

4. A bunch of protocol upgrades.

   The second Lightning Developer Summit is in a couple of weeks; the
   outcome of this will be a flurry of (backward compatible) protocol
   enhancements.  Splicing is particularly important for c-lightning
   users, but there will are other exciting proposals.  These will
   no-doubt be rolled in over multiple versions.

5. Reporting for errors.

   Automated error reporting means faster fixes, but we worry about
   privacy (though current users have been awesome with sending logs and
   databases to help debug!).  The best solution here seems to be a
   plugin which sends an encrypted debug log whenever there's crash or a
   unilateral close, if the user configures it.

Of course, there are always unexpected additions and contributions, and
we look forward to those as well!

Cheers,
Rusty.