In order to verify the release, you'll need to have `gpg` or `gpg2` installed on your system. Once you've obtained a copy (and hopefully verified that as well), you'll first need to import the keys that have signed this release if you haven't done so already:
Once you have the required PGP keys, you can verify the release (assuming `manifest-${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}.txt` and `manifest-${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}.txt.sig` are in the current directory) with:
gpg:Good signature from "Conner Fromknecht <conner@lightning.engineering>" [ultimate]
```
That will verify the signature of the manifest file, which ensures integrity and authenticity of the archive you've downloaded locally containing the binaries. Next, depending on your operating system, you should then re-compute the `sha256` hash of the archive with `shasum -a 256 <filename>`, compare it with the corresponding one in the manifest file, and ensure they match *exactly*.
For this release roasbeef's signature is the secondary signature which can be verified with the following command:
gpg:Good signature from "Olaoluwa Osuntokun <laolu32@gmail.com>" [ultimate]
```
## Verifying the Release Timestamp
From this new version onwards, in addition time-stamping the _git tag_ with [OpenTimeStamps](https://opentimestamps.org/), we'll also now timestamp the manifest file along with its signature. Two new files are now included along with the rest of our release artifacts:` manifest-${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}.txt.sig.ots` and `manifest-${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}.txt.ots`.
Assuming you have the opentimestamps client installed locally, the timestamps can be verified with the following commands:
Alternatively, [the open timestamps website](https://opentimestamps.org/) can be used to verify timestamps if one doesn't have a `bitcoind` instance accessible locally.
These timestamps should give users confidence in the integrity of this release even after the key that signed the release expires.
## Verifying the Release Binaries
Our release binaries are fully reproducible. Third parties are able to verify that the release binaries were produced properly without having to trust the release manager(s). See our [reproducible builds guide](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/tree/master/build/release) for how this can be achieved.
The release binaries are compiled with `go${{ env.GO_VERSION }}`, which is required by verifiers to arrive at the same ones.
They include the following build tags:`autopilotrpc`, `signrpc`, `walletrpc`, `chainrpc`, `invoicesrpc`, `routerrpc`, and `watchtowerrpc`. Note that these are already included in the release script, so they do not need to be provided.
The `make release` command can be used to ensure one rebuilds with all the same flags used for the release. If one wishes to build for only a single platform, then `make release sys=<OS-ARCH> tag=<tag>` can be used.
Finally, you can also verify the _tag_ itself with the following command:
The `-mod=vendor` flag tells the `go build` command that it doesn't need to fetch the dependencies, and instead, they're all enclosed in the local vendor directory.
Additionally, it's now possible to use the [enclosed `release.sh` script to bundle a release for a _specific_ system like so](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2191):
```
make release sys="linux-arm64 darwin-amd64"
```
⚡️⚡️⚡️ OK, now to the rest of the release notes! ⚡️⚡️⚡️