Don't Trust Your Node: Policy-Based Signing for Secure Lightning Infrastructure
Lightning nodes are hot wallets by design, signing keys live alongside routing logic, creating a real attack surface for anyone running serious Lightning infrastructure. As a BTrust grantee contributing to Validating Lightning Signer (VLS), this talk breaks down the problem of blind signing, how VLS separates the signer from the node, and how policy rules are enforced before any signature is produced, making it especially relevant for LSPs and Lightning operators scaling across Africa. The presentation will provide a clear picture of the problem VLS solves, how it works in practice, and where the open challenges still are.