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On the (Not So) Surprising Impact of Multi-Path Payments on Performance And Privacy in the Lightning Network

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Computer Security. ESORICS 2023 International Workshops (ESORICS 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14398))

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Abstract

The Lightning network (LN) addresses Bitcoin’s scalability issues by providing fast and private payment processing. In order to mitigate failures caused by insufficient channel capacities, LN introduced multi-path payments. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of multi-path payments remains unclear. In this paper, we therefore study the impact of multi-path payments on performance and privacy. We identify metrics quantifying the aforementioned properties and utilise them to evaluate the impact of multi-path payments. To this end, we develop a simulator implementing pathfinding in LN using single and multi-path payments as well as various pathfinding algorithms. We find that, while the success rate of multi-path payments is up to \(20\%\) higher, the impact of multi-path payments on performance otherwise remains within limits. On the other hand, the impact on privacy appears to be greater, e.g., multi-path payments are more likely to encounter an on-path adversary and the relationship anonymity is more likely to be compromised by colluding intermediate hops. However, multi-path payments are less likely to be deanonymised based on the path lengths.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/07-routing-gossip.md#requirements-9.

  2. 2.

    https://github.com/cndolo/lightning-simulator.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/07-routing-gossip.md#htlc-fees.

  4. 4.

    https://cndolo.github.io/lightning-simulator.

  5. 5.

    According to https://lnrouter.app/graph/zero-base-fee.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt -Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Charmaine Ndolo & Florian Tschorsch

  2. Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Florian Tschorsch

Authors
  1. Charmaine Ndolo
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  2. Florian Tschorsch
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Correspondence to Charmaine Ndolo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, Norway

    Sokratis Katsikas

  2. Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Frédéric Cuppens

  3. Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Nora Cuppens-Boulahia

  4. University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Costas Lambrinoudakis

  5. Télécom SudParis, Palaiseau, France

    Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro

  6. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Guillermo Navarro-Arribas

  7. University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain

    Pantaleone Nespoli

  8. University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece

    Christos Kalloniatis

  9. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    John Mylopoulos

  10. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Annie Antón

  11. University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Stefanos Gritzalis

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Ndolo, C., Tschorsch, F. (2024). On the (Not So) Surprising Impact of Multi-Path Payments on Performance And Privacy in the Lightning Network. In: Katsikas, S., et al. Computer Security. ESORICS 2023 International Workshops. ESORICS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14398. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54204-6_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54204-6_25

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