Validating Signers Are What Hardware Wallets Were for Bitcoin
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.