The cost of Lightning Network channels and its implications for the network's structure
Abstract
A channel in the Lightning Network is a protocol to secure bitcoin payments and escrow holdings between two parties, designed to increase transaction immediacy and reduce blockchain congestion. In a lightning channel, each party commits collateral towards future payments to the counterparty. Payments are cryptographically secured updates of the collaterals. This paper obtains conditions under which two parties optimally establish a channel, finds explicit formulas for channels’ costs, and derives implications for the network’s structure under cooperation assumptions among small sets of users. As optimal network structures eschew redundant channels, they typically exhibit low degree. If agents’ payment rates are sufficiently homogeneous, centralization through a common intermediary may become optimal.
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