Paper 2021/009 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2021/009 ↗

Demand-aware Channel Topologies for Off-chain Blockchain Payments

Julia Khamis
Ori Rottenstreich
Abstract

Abstract: Off-chain is a common approach to deal with the scalability problem of blockchain networks. It enables users toexecute multiple payments without committing each of them to the blockchain by relying on predefined payment channels. Apair of users can employ a payment even without a direct channel between them, via routing the payment through off-chainchannels involving other intermediate users. Users together with the off-chain channels form a graph, known as the off-chainnetwork topology. The off-chain topology and the payment characteristics affect network performance such as the averagenumber of intermediate users a payment is routed through, the amount of fees, or channel capacities needed to successfullyroute payments. In this paper, we study two basic problems in off-chain network design. First, efficiently mapping users toan off-chain topology with a known structure. Second, constructing a topology of a bounded number of channels that canserve well users with associated payments. We design algorithms for both problems and evaluate them based on real datafrom Raiden, the off-chain extension for Ethereum. Keywors:

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Cryptographic protocols
Publication info
Preprint.
History
2021-01-06: last updated
2021-01-06: published
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2021/009
License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2021/009,
      author = {Julia Khamis and Ori Rottenstreich},
      title = {Demand-aware Channel Topologies for Off-chain Blockchain Payments},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2021/009},
      year = {2021},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/009}
}
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