Optimal Fee Structure for Efficient Lightning Networks
Optimal Fee Structure for Efficient Lightning Networks
复制标题
高效闪电网络的最佳费用结构
DOI：
10.1109/padsw.2018.8644930
复制
发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
R. Goh
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Ren;Ling Feng;S. Cheong;R. Goh
闪电网络(Lightning Network，LN)等离链交易处理是解决比特币等区块链技术规模挑战的最有前途的解决方案之一。同时，LN自身也面临着交易路径长度、渠道(枢纽)集中化、渠道失衡(耗尽)等挑战。本文研究支付渠道费用对这些因素的影响。为了获得现实的见解，我们的研究基于经验比特币交易模式和现有的LN结构，并应用了一种简单的费用结构形式，其中只有一个可调参数$\α$，该参数对交易路径的影响最大。我们假设通过LN的交易采用总费用最低的路径，结果发现不能同时具有较短的平均路径长度和较低的整体渠道失衡。一个好的折衷办法是使费用与信道容量的平方根成正比，这样可以实现合理的较短路径长度和总体平衡的信道容量，从而使LN的操作更可持续。
Off-chain transaction handling like the Lightning Network (LN) is among the most promising solutions to solve the scaling challenges in blockchain technology like Bitcoin. At the same time, the LN faces its own challenges like transaction path lengths, centralization of channels (hubs), channel imbalances (depletion), etc. Here we study the effects of payment channel fees on these various factors. To get realistic insights, we based our study on empirical Bitcoin transaction patterns and existing LN structure, and apply a simple form of fee structure with only one tunable parameter, $\alpha$, that is most influential on the transaction routing paths. We assume the transactions through the LN take the path of the lowest aggregate fees, and found as a consequence that one cannot have short average path lengths and low overall channel imbalances at the same time. A good compromise is to have fees proportional to the square root of the channel capacity, such that reasonably short path lengths and overall balanced channel capacities can be achieved that makes the operation of the LN more sustainable.