When Bitcoin started, people kept keys on laptops, paper wallets and flash drives.

Then people lost millions.

So hardware wallets were created to:

  • Isolate the keys
  • Validate transactions before signing
  • Protect users from malware and bad software

Now, Lightning is repeating history.

  • Nodes are hot wallets
  • Blind signers trust unverified requests
  • Funds disappear when mistakes or compromises happen

🧠 Validating Signers = Lightning’s Hardware Wallet Moment

VLS is the Lightning world’s equivalent of a true hardware wallet:

  • They separate keys from hot infrastructure
  • They validate protocol rules before signing
  • They refuse malicious transactions even if the node is compromised

This is a serious upgrade for a system that's growing fast, but outgrowing naive assumptions about security.


👉 See why VLS is critical for secure Lightning scaling