Bitcoin Stack Exchange
Bitcoin Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ln-topology]

13 questions
15
votes
3 answers

Is centralization in the Lightning network inevitable? Why (not)?

Especially keeping in mind the possibility of single-funded channels (see Tadge's Google Doc Slides), buying from an exchange and concurrently opening a payment channel on the Lightning network would seem a particularly simple entry to the LN.…
Murch
  • 71,155
  • 33
  • 180
  • 600
13
votes
2 answers

Why did the lightning network implement a gossip protocol?

As pointed out by many lightning developers in the past (e.g. Rusty's 1 million channel challenge) the gossip protocol is quite noisy and a part of the BOLTs causing many engineering challenges. Today, I learned that Ethereum's Raiden network does…
Rene Pickhardt
  • 11,670
  • 8
  • 35
9
votes
2 answers

What criteria should be taken into account when selecting nodes to create new lightning channels with?

Alex Bosworth recently pointed out: I see people connect to a "well connected" node on LN and by that they mean they connect to a node with lots of channels. The number of channels is actually a contra-indicator of a node's ability to route. Good…
Murch
  • 71,155
  • 33
  • 180
  • 600
7
votes
4 answers

Lightning mainnet peer list?

I just set up c-lightning on mainnet and I'd like to open a channel but I can't find a list of node ids and ip addresses. Does anyone know where I can find this?
Mike Carson
  • 71
  • 1
  • 2
4
votes
2 answers

Obtaining Lightning network graph data

I was wondering if it is possible for me to obtain data about the Lightning network mainnet, particularly the nodes and the edges (channels) in the network. I know that the graph is visualized in explorers such as https://lnmainnet.gaben.win/ and…
antimornings
  • 41
  • 2
3
votes
1 answer

lightning-cli listnodes is empty. Am I missing something?

I want the result of listnodes like the following. How can I do that? { "nodes" : [ { "nodeid" : "028e5a8e86540f703e1f58880d35d1e318a54c27d84ec1edbcde04a78ed4469a1e", "alias" : "???? EXANTE", "color" : "007f39", "last_timestamp" :…
zono
  • 1,895
  • 1
  • 19
  • 35
3
votes
1 answer

lightning-cli list only my channels

After connecting to a busy lighnting node such as 03c856d2dbec7454c48f311031f06bb99e3ca1ab15a9b9b35de14e139aa663b463@testnet-lnd.htlc.me the number of channels my own lightning node knows about becomes very large. Is there a way to get the…
sipsorcery
  • 809
  • 5
  • 13
2
votes
4 answers

Number of nodes and channels in Lightning Network?

(1) Is there any tool by which we can know the current number of nodes (participants as payer/payee) and number of channels in Lightning Network with an accurate estimation? (2) As a more advanced query, is it also possible to know the topology of…
Questioner
  • 1,151
  • 8
  • 22
1
vote
1 answer

How do new nodes learn the topology of Lightning network?

Lightning nodes store a full network snapshots to calculate routes for outgoing payments. Nodes listen to announcements of new (public) channel openings and constantly update their local snapshots. But where do new nodes (or nodes which return after…
Sergei Tikhomirov
  • 1,430
  • 7
  • 17
1
vote
1 answer

How do Lightning Explorers like 1ML register closed channels?

I want to do analytics on unilaterally and mutually closed channels. To do so I need to scan know when channels close. It seems to me there's no other way than to actively scan the network graph for closed channels. But I'm not sure if that's the…
gijswijs
  • 285
  • 1
  • 12
1
vote
0 answers

Are payment channel attributes in the Lightning Network always directed?

While learning about payment channels, I understood channel attributes like base fees, proportional fees and maximum HTLC size would be directed, i.e., the attributes from A to B would not necessarily be the same as the attributes from B to A.…
Gabriel Rebello
  • 171
  • 3
1
vote
1 answer

LN nodes with no network addresses

I'm trying to create a graph of the LN network using data from https://ln.fiatjaf.com/. I used the channel data to get all the active channels for any given duration and created a graph using the nodes of the said channels. The next step was to find…
Vinay Shetty
  • 115
  • 5
0
votes
1 answer

Funding channels in Lightning Network

I was attempting to learn more about LN and came across the article Connect to Lightning for Free. I made a graphic of my interpretation of the instructions. In the article, the suggestion is made that the nodes 1, 2 and 3 connect to the user's own…
Casey Harrils
  • 185
  • 7