What is Fiber and Why Does It Matter?

2 min read
by Developer Relations

A short thread to give you a quick glimpse of what Fiber can do.

What is Fiber?

Fiber is a privacy-by-default, scalable network for fast, low-cost payments and swaps between digital assets. Aligned with Bitcoin’s principles, Fiber connects peers decentrally, ensuring security and efficiency without external consensus or centralized validation.

What makes Fiber different?

  • Beyond channel network like Lightning, Fiber natively supports stable-coin payment and assets swap, unlocking new Bitcoin-based financial use cases.

  • Unlike sidechains and rollups, Fiber is not a chain. It scales off-chain with Bitcoin-aligned decentralization, privacy, and security, while achieving high efficiency without relying on external trust assumptions or complex cryptographic proofs.

Why Fiber matters:

  • Bitcoin-aligned: Expands Bitcoin’s use cases while staying rooted in its decentralization principles.

  • Lightning-compatible: Works seamlessly with Lightning while adding flexibility and multi-asset support for payments & swaps.

  • Privacy-by-default & Efficient: No network-wide consensus; transactions are only visible to involved parties and settle quickly via direct peer-to-peer communication.

Features rundown:

  • Multi-asset support: Supports stablecoins, RGB++ assets on the Bitcoin ledger, and UDT assets on CKB.
  • Ultra-low fees: Micropayments as small as 0.0001 cents, with fees as low as 0.00000001 cents.
  • Instant asset swaps: Swap any asset pair as long as a channel path is available.
  • Cross-network payments & swaps: Seamless transactions between the Lightning Network and Fiber.
  • Watchtower support: Helps node operators monitor and secure the network.
  • Multi-hop payments: Run a Fiber node and earn fees by facilitating payments.
  • Low latency: Transactions process with minimum delay (e.g., 20ms for 0.0001 cent payments).
  • High throughput: Transactions handled by involved peers without requiring network-wide consensus.
  • Enhanced privacy: Transactions are only visible to involved peers.
  • Advanced cryptography: Uses PTLC instead of HTLC for stronger security and privacy.
  • Composable with CKB Scripts: Integrates with other contracts and Scripts on CKB.
All Posts

Found this helpful? Share it with others!