Author: Johan Torås Halseth 2018-07-10 10:23:59
Published on: 2018-07-10T10:23:59+00:00
The Lightning Network community has been discussing the benefits of rebalancing channels. One argument is that by maintaining balance, one is likely to reduce the number of routing failures from failed HTLC forwarding as a channel is equally likely to be able to carry an HTLC in either direction. A recent paper suggests a smart mechanism to do the rebalancing and discusses the gist of distribution of funds in channels not really affecting network liquidity. However, it is argued that if payment flows are more or less balanced, then passive rebalancing isn't necessary, but if a few sources/sinks dominate, then channels may regularly become biased requiring more maintenance. It is suggested that a smart fee strategy may do the job of rebalancing. The author believes that nodes' plans to send and receive should dictate the distribution of funds in channels, rather than equilibrium. Nodes with no balance are bad for topology and should be discouraged. Autopilot could mitigate this problem.
Updated on: 2023-05-25T01:47:34.144467+00:00