Author: Christian Decker 2017-12-15 21:13:37
Published on: 2017-12-15T21:13:37+00:00
Connecting to a single peer will leave all payment amounts and timings visible to that peer, making them the only point of failure. Opening more channels would provide plausible deniability and reduce risk if one peer goes down. However, large hubs are not cost-effective to run because they require over-provisioning funds to cover potential payments and can become targets for attacks. The low utilization of funds in channels also means that hubs may charge high fees for channel usage, which incentivizes users to create bypasses. These factors should encourage end-users to create at least two channels. Blockstream aims to manage these details in the background, allowing users to make on-chain or off-chain payments without worrying about the specifics. Users can still receive incoming payments through selective channel announcements without revealing to the wider network. Additionally, announcing a channel allows for bidirectional payments while preventing random routing through that channel.
Updated on: 2023-05-24T17:07:09.373388+00:00