In a Lightning Network who commits to the blockchain the final transaction?

So let's imagine a Lightning Network made up of thousand of nodes. Transactions are routed until the moment comes where all the channels need to be closed and commited I presume. Which node actually takes care of this?

No, that is not how lightning works. All channels are not created and closed at the same time. They are created individually and closed individually. Each channel has its own 2-of-2 multisig, not the entire route. And channels are not established just for one route, that would be inefficient. Routing happens because there are channels that are already open between people and it is more efficient to route than it is to establish a new channel.

When a channel is closed, the two people in that channel will create the final commitment transaction for that channel and once that is broadcast and confirmed, the channel is closed.

who will actually pay the fees to the BTC network?

With the current lightning protocol, the person who requested the creation of a channel will be the one who pays any transaction fees. Although if both parties mutually requested the creation of the channel, they can probably split the fees with a bit of manual transaction modification/creation.

Whoever is listening and has the transactions in hand can build this huge transaction (as long as the timelocks are respected) and soon it will be mined.

No. Commitment transactions require the signatures of the parties involved in the channel.

Andrew Chow

Posted 2017-07-04T17:52:24.020

Reputation: 40 910

Ok but how does the fee economy within LN work? I remember reading that all nodes that help route the transaction to destination is incentivized to do this via fees. How so? – Luca Matteis – 2017-07-04T18:09:09.303

The fees work via the differences in channel balances. For example (values not representative of actual), for a route of A -> B -> C-> D-> where A sends D 0.5 BTC, A, via its channel with B, would send to B 0.52. Then B, via its channel with C, would send to C 0.51. Then C, via its channel with D, would send to D 0.5. In this way, B and C collect their fees from their channel balances and D receives the amount that he asked for. – Andrew Chow – 2017-07-04T18:12:37.923

When A sends to B 0.52 btc, does it have 0.5 btc as output to D and 0.2 to B? Then B sets as output 0.1 for C and 0.5 to D. And finally C just a single output of 0.5 to D?

Also, if the A->B channel ends, and the 0.52 tx is commited to the blockchain, D has his money and so does B (the 0.2 fee), but what about C and D? – Luca Matteis – 2017-07-04T22:14:58.007

2No. When A sends 0.52 to B, B gets all of the 0.52 in his A <-> B channel. Then B sends 0.51 to C and C gets all 0.51 in his B <-> C channel. Then C sends 0.5 to D and D gets 0.5 in his C <-> D channel. So if the A <-> B channel closes, D has his 0.5 from the C <-> D channel and A still has spent 0.52 which is now with B. With LN, A doesn't actually directly make an output to D unless they have a channel open with each other. – Andrew Chow – 2017-07-04T23:04:00.503

but what would make the lightning network commit to the blockchain in a timely fashion? what if on 2020 adding a transaction to the blockchain takes 10 months, how lightning network solves that? – Nir O. – 2017-12-14T17:22:23.677

@NirO. LN does not solve that problem. If there is so many transactions in the future that that happens, something else will need to be done to increase the onchain transaction capacity. – Andrew Chow – 2017-12-14T17:27:33.593

In a Lightning Network who commits to the blockchain the final transaction?

Answers