<p>On a principle / technical level I see no reason why it should not work as you propose. However I see engineering Challenges:</p>
<ol>
<li>The workflow of funding channels and (more importantly swiping on chain data if everything is sent to multisig addresses and requires your multisig partner to sign) would require way more communication overhead and dataflow.</li>
<li>Note also that there is a statement in the lightning-rfc (i believe in BOLT 03) stating that all tx needs to be p2whitness transactions (meaning segwit) so having / maintaining different Address types in your wallet might increase the complexity to handle them.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thus I <em>assume</em> it was easier for the electrum developers to restrict themselves to this particular wallet type to be compatible with lightning network.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-21T05:34:08.177Z
2020-07-21T05:34:08.177Z
Rene Pickhardt
<p>I want to experience the lightning network transactions with my Electrum wallet. But the lightning network is not available, and it shows the following information:</p>
<p>&quot;Lightning is currently restricted to HD wallets with p2wpkh addresses.&quot;</p>
<p>What are p2wpkh addresses? I generated my multisig wallet with all the addresses starting with &quot;bc1&quot;. Why cannot I use the lightning network with these addresses?</p>

<address><lightning-network><electrum><multi-signature>
How to use the lightning network with Electrum multisig wallet?
Xenomorph
# How to use the lightning network with Electrum multisig wallet?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-07-21)

I want to experience the lightning network transactions with my Electrum wallet. But the lightning network is not available, and it shows the following information:

"Lightning is currently restricted to HD wallets with p2wpkh addresses."

What are p2wpkh addresses? I generated my multisig wallet with all the addresses starting with "bc1". Why cannot I use the lightning network with these addresses?

**Tags:** address, lightning-network, electrum, multi-signature


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-07-21. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

On a principle / technical level I see no reason why it should not work as you propose. However I see engineering Challenges:

1. The workflow of funding channels and (more importantly swiping on chain data if everything is sent to multisig addresses and requires your multisig partner to sign) would require way more communication overhead and dataflow.
2. Note also that there is a statement in the lightning-rfc (i believe in BOLT 03) stating that all tx needs to be p2whitness transactions (meaning segwit) so having / maintaining different Address types in your wallet might increase the complexity to handle them.

Thus I *assume* it was easier for the electrum developers to restrict themselves to this particular wallet type to be compatible with lightning network.


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