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426 sats \ 4 replies \ @pillar 19 Dec 2023 \ on: The Lightning Network is not sufficiently decentralized lightning
I would like to add a nuance. Remember that there is no such thing as The Lightning Network, just like there is no such thing as The Mempool.
You can happily build a small network with those around you and keep it isolated without any issues. Less exciting, but it works. There could be a number of people using it privately in this fashion without anybody else knowing. It would surely make sense for large players, like exchanges, to have their own connections that they use among themselves for settlement. And for these nodes and channels to remain private, only known by those involved.
Having said that, due to game theory, at some point someone will probably connect you to the rest of the world even if you try to stay isolated.
Good point!
Also an important aspect to add to this: the chart is missing THE PRIVATE NODES and channels !
... something that you can't "see" in these meaningless charts and nobody knows how big that "private network" is.
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Last time I looked from the network graph, more than 99% of the nodes were connected together.
I at some point thought that finding those 'islands' was a good idea, to get lots of traffic by being the bridge between them, so I built a tool to check that
The few that are not connected keep it that way for a reason.
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What tool did you build?
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Sorry i did not see the reply.
This was in the early code for my lightning node channel advisor (www.lnshortcut.ovh). But as i found out there was actually no 'island', i just abandonned that code.
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