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Zabka, P., Foerster, K.-T., Decker, C., & Schmid, S. 2022, May 2–6 A centrality analysis of the lightning network. Unpublished paper presented at Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2022. Added by: Rucknium (2022-05-05 20:36) |
| Resource type: Conference Paper BibTeX citation key: Zabka2022 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: Monero-focused Keywords: Payment Channels Creators: Decker, Foerster, Schmid, Zabka Collection: Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2022 |
Views: 48/2654
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Attachments
39.pdf  [28/929]
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URLs https://fc22.ifca. ... proceedings/39.pdf |
| Abstract |
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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 dependability requirements of blockchain. In particular, in order to mitigate liquidity bottlenecks as well as on-path attacks, it is important that payment channel networks maintain a high degree of decentralization. Motivated by this require- ment, we conduct an empirical centrality analysis of the popular Light- ning Network, and in particular, the betweenness centrality distribution of the routing system. Based on our extensive data set (using several mil- lions of channel update messages), we implemented a TimeMachine tool which enables us to study the network evolution over time. We find that although the network is generally fairly decentralized, a small number of nodes can attract a significant fraction of the transactions, introducing skew. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that over the last two years, the centrality has increased significantly, e.g., the inequality (measured by the Gini index) has increased by more than 10%. |