Understanding Rendezvous Routing and its Connection to the Lightning Network

Lately, I've been trying to get my head around Rendezvous Routing and how it ties in with the Lightning Network. Most of the info I found with a quick search seemed to focus on the Rendezvous Protocol itself instead of the routing aspect. It's got me thinking that maybe the Rendezvous Protocol is linked to routing in some way. From what I've read, it looks like Rendezvous Protocol is mostly a term used in Peer-to-Peer networks, like this one... Lightning Network has so many interpretations that it feels like anyone could define it in their own way. From what I’ve gathered, it’s a decentralized layer 2 solution acting as a payment channel built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s well-known for tackling scalability issues. No matter how we each define it, the essential point is that LN is mainly for quick off-chain Bitcoin transfers before the final on-chain broadcast happens. I still don’t quite see how the Rendezvous Protocol or routing has anything to do with LN, but maybe some members here have insights. So, I’ve got a few questions: 1. Is there a connection between Rendezvous Protocol and Rendezvous Routing? 2. What’s the relation to the title of this thread? 3. When setting up a payment channel, does the Rendezvous Protocol come into play? I’m totally open to corrections since I’m still learning. Apologies for any mistakes and feel free to share your thoughts.

Yes they are related in a sense that they are both used to find a route to the destination. The difference is that rendezvous routing is used specifically to lightning network. Lightning network uses rendezvous routing for the nodes to find each other and establish a route without having the lightning network to see a complete map of the network. Nodes only communicate through nearby nodes and that is how they get to the targeted destination. The term rendezvous protocol is not often used when it comes to lightning network however the concept of paving a route through neighboring nodes is applied.

How does the the lightening network work? 1. A channel is opened by two parties 2. Transactions are  done within the channel 3. Payments done within the channel are routed (sent) to the desired destination. 4. Finally the channel is closed by either party in the lightning network. Rendezvous routing is a slight twist on the way source routing works. In source routing, the originator of the payment (sender) decides the route the payment will take to get to the receiver. This is very straightforward and the most commonly used. The Rendezvous routing method on the other hand allows payments reach the recipient but anonymously through the use of third party called the Rendezvous node or point. The Rendezvous routing solves some routing problems in the lightning network.  It solves the privacy problem and also makes private channels much more usable. Note that, aside the source routing and Rendezvous routing method stated above, there are still other routing methods like Trampoline Routing and Multi-Path payment methods which can be used in the lightning network. And yes, the Rendezvous Protocol is related to Rendezvous Routing.