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Payment channel networks (PCNs) such as the Lightning Network offer an appealing solution to the scalability problem faced by many cryptocurrencies operating on a blockchain such as Bitcoin. However, PCNs also inherit the stringent…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2022-01-20 Philipp Zabka , Klaus-Tycho Foerster , Stefan Schmid , Christian Decker

Off-chain transaction networks can mitigate the scalability issues of today's trustless electronic cash systems such as Bitcoin. However, these peer-to-peer networks also introduce a new attack surface which is not well-understood today.…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2019-09-17 Saar Tochner , Stefan Schmid , Aviv Zohar

The last decade has experienced a vast interest in Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies with a specific focus on the applications of this technology. However, slow confirmation times of transactions and unforeseeable high fees hamper their…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2020-12-15 Suat Mercan , Enes Erdin , Kemal Akkaya

The Bitcoin Lightning network is a mechanism to enable fast and inexpensive off-chain Bitcoin transactions using peer-to-peer (P2P) channels between nodes that can also be composed into a routing path. Although the resulting possible…

Networking and Internet Architecture · Computer Science 2020-06-26 Finnegan Waugh , Ralph Holz

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol designed to facilitate fast and inexpensive Bitcoin transactions. It operates by establishing channels between users, where Bitcoin is locked and transactions are conducted off-chain until…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-07-12 Rainer Feichtinger , Florian Grötschla , Lioba Heimbach , Roger Wattenhofer

Off-chain transaction channels represent one of the leading techniques to scale the transaction throughput in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. They allow multiple agents to route payments through one another. So far, the topology and…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-07-28 Yotam Sali , Aviv Zohar

Payment channel networks are an approach to improve the scalability of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. Because payment channel networks are used for transfer of financial value, their security in the presence of adversarial participants…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-07-06 Matthias Grundmann , Hannes Hartenstein

Payment channels were introduced to solve various eminent cryptocurrency scalability issues. Multiple payment channels build a network on top of a blockchain, the so-called layer 2. In this work, we analyze payment networks through the lens…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-12-11 Zeta Avarikioti , Lioba Heimbach , Yuyi Wang , Roger Wattenhofer

As Lightning network payments are neither broadcasted nor publicly stored. Thus LN has been seen not only as scalability but also as privacy solution for Bitcoin. The protocol guarantees that only the latest channel state can be confirmed…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2020-04-02 Sergei Tikhomirov , Rene Pickhardt , Alex Biryukov , Mariusz Nowostawski

The fundamental building blocks of the Bitcoin lightning network are bidirectional payment channels. We describe an extension of payment channels in the Proofgold network which allow the two parties to bet on whether a proposition will be…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-09-11 Chad E. Brown , Cezary Kaliszyk , Josef Urban

Payment channel networks, and the Lightning Network in particular, seem to offer a solution to the lack of scalability and privacy offered by Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. Previous research has focused on the…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-01-22 George Kappos , Haaroon Yousaf , Ania Piotrowska , Sanket Kanjalkar , Sergi Delgado-Segura , Andrew Miller , Sarah Meiklejohn

Payment channels networks drastically increase the throughput and hence scalability of blockchains by performing transactions \emph{off-chain}. In an off-chain payment, parties deposit coins in a channel and then perform transactions…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2020-12-21 Yuup van Engelshoven , Stefanie Roos

Cryptocurrency networks such as Bitcoin have emerged as a distributed alternative to traditional centralized financial transaction networks. However, there are major challenges in scaling up the throughput of such networks. Lightning…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-06-25 Sushil Mahavir Varma , Siva Theja Maguluri

Payment channels allow transactions between participants of the blockchain to be executed securely off-chain, and thus provide a promising solution for the scalability problem of popular blockchains. We study the online network design…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-08-02 Georgia Avarikioti , Kenan Besic , Yuyi Wang , Roger Wattenhofer

The Lightning Network is the most widely used payment channel network (PCN) to date, making it an attractive attack surface for adversaries. In this paper, we analyze the Lightning Network's PCN topology and investigate its resilience…

Networking and Internet Architecture · Computer Science 2019-04-24 Elias Rohrer , Julian Malliaris , Florian Tschorsch

The Lightning Network, a payment channel network with a market cap of over 192M USD, is designed to resolve Bitcoin's scalability issues through fast off-chain transactions. There are multiple Lightning Network client implementations, all…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-05-06 Ben Weintraub , Satwik Prabhu Kumble , Cristina Nita-Rotaru , Stefanie Roos

The Lightning Network is a scaling solution for Bitcoin that promises to enable rapid and private payment processing. In Lightning, multi-hop payments are secured by utilizing Hashed Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs) and encrypted on the…

Networking and Internet Architecture · Computer Science 2020-06-23 Elias Rohrer , Florian Tschorsch

Payment channel networks provide a fast and scalable solution to relay funds, acting as a second layer to slower and less scalable blockchain protocols. In this paper, we present an accessible, low-cost attack in which the attacker…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-02-02 Ayelet Mizrahi , Aviv Zohar

The Lightning Network (LN) is a second-layer protocol for Bitcoin designed to enable fast and cost-efficient off-chain transactions. Channels in the LN can be closed either by mutual agreement or unilaterally through a forced closure, which…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-14 Simone Antonelli , Vincent Davis , Harrison Rush , Anthony Potdevin , Jesse Shrader , Vikash Singh , Emanuele Rossi

Payment channel networks are an approach to improve the scalability of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. The Lightning Network is a payment channel network built for Bitcoin that is already used in practice. Because the Lightning Network…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2025-05-22 Matthias Grundmann , Hannes Hartenstein