By publicly exploiting a bug on Lightning that could have put users’ funds at risk, the developer was acting in the best interests of Bitcoin node runners.
The nature of open-source distributed systems leaves some vulnerabilities open to exploitation, but should bugs be exploited publicly or disclosed in private?
One developer brought down LND nodes with a massive multisignature transaction, causing issues across the Lightning Network for a short period of time.
The good news is that the Bitcoin protocol is safe and the bug was never exploited in any way. Still, it could have allowed for one of the worst attacks on Bitcoin in years.
