`htlc_maximum_msat` as a valve for flow control on the Lightning Network



Summary:

The discussion revolves around the idea of throttling payment traffic independent of fees. It is stated that fees can have discontinuous effects where a small change to fee can cause a large change to traffic volume, whereas the use of `htlc_max_msat` should mostly have a proportional response. However, it is suggested that this may depend on what becomes popular for sender algorithms. If senders quantize their payments, the distribution of HTLC sizes would be a spike around the standard quantum, causing a massive discontinuity around that point. Similarly, if coffee or other everyday products settle on a standard price, there could be a spike around that price. Thus, the reliability of `htlc_max_msat` as a valve is dependent on market forces and may be as non-linear as feerates that are the sum total of the market force. Feerates, on the other hand, will consistently work as a valve regardless of future sender algorithms. This discussion highlights the importance of considering market forces while implementing any mechanism for throttling payment traffic.


Updated on: 2023-06-03T09:59:53.609211+00:00