Author: Stan Kladko 2017-12-13 13:04:50
Published on: 2017-12-13T13:04:50+00:00
The context is a conversation between two individuals discussing various aspects of the Lightning Network (LN). The first individual inquires about firewall traversal mechanisms and the possibility of an overlay network. The second individual explains that there are no UIs available to discover nodes on the network but current LN programs keep track of this information in their databases. The network bootstrap involves using DNS to discover some of the LN nodes, and then the node will connect to these nodes, request node gossip, and select nodes to connect and channel to. When asked how someone can find out if someone wants to connect to them, the second individual explains that incoming channel requests are auto-accepted, and there are currently no UIs available for accepting or rejecting them. If someone intends to become a hub and earn routing fees, they should invest in relatively new and low-connectivity nodes. When asked how much one can earn approximately in routing fees, the second individual explains that each node indicates a "fixed fee" and a "proportional fee," which are imposed per successful routing attempt and as a ratio of the value traveling through the node when it is on the route, respectively. There are currently no performance/reputation info available for any hub, and any node can become a hub without permission or special treatment of the network, if by "hub" we mean "node with high number of channels". Finally, the second individual notes that there is nothing that specially privileges hubs, and this is deliberate.
Updated on: 2023-05-24T16:29:56.756704+00:00