"BCNP: Rethinking Network Communication; A Bitcoin-Based Protocol for the Post-IP Era"

The rapid growth of connected devices, IoT ecosystems, and decentralized applications has revealed critical limitations in today’s IP-based networking architecture. Issues such as IPv4 address exhaustion, reliance on complex NAT mechanisms, and the stagnation of IPv6 adoption have hindered scalability and security. These challenges highlight the need for a future-proof alternative that offers security, scalability, and decentralization while bypassing traditional IP-based vulnerabilities.

This paper introduces the Bitcoin Communication Network Protocol (BCNP); a decentralized addressing and transport stack designed to replace TCP/IP and address the needs of next-generation secure networks. BCNP leverages cryptographically verifiable identifiers, dynamic routing, and the Lightning Network (LN) to establish secure, peer-to-peer communication without reliance on IP infrastructure.

BCNP introduces a 20-byte address structure inspired by the NSAP format, dynamically assigning prefixes based on hashed LN public keys and ensuring tamper-proof identities using Bitcoin signatures. Address legitimacy is validated via decentralized records, replacing centralized systems like RPKI. To maintain scalability and minimize blockchain bloat, IPFS (Inter-Planetary File System) is proposed as a distributed storage layer, with pointers anchored in Bitcoin or LN transactions.

By separating the control plane (route discovery via LN channels) from the data plane (payload delivery over Ethernet or Internet tunnels), BCNP ensures dynamic path selection while maintaining efficient data transmission. Future enhancements include multi-hop routing, dynamic tunneling, and channel-based routing for scalable, trustless networks. In the long term, BCNP could also be adopted as the infrastructure backbone for Bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes, eliminating IP dependencies and enabling truly decentralized communication frameworks.

“This report is categorized under Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) and proposes a novel decentralized communication protocol leveraging the Bitcoin network and Lightning Network (LN) for dynamic addressing and routing.”