I’ve heard that the Lightning Network is mostly used for small transactions, like buying a coffee or tipping online. On the other hand, on-chain transactions are typically for opening or closing channels, while Lightning is used for sending sats.
What I’m curious about is the general capacity for sending sats through the Lightning Network. Are most people just sending small amounts, or do some regularly send larger transactions (like 0.1 to 0.9 BTC)?
I think that in theory there is no limit, but in practice you are limited to the liquidity of the nodes and channels.
https://1ml.com/statistics
Yeah, I get that, but is sending more than 0.5 BTC actually practical?
Yes you can. Rene Pickhardt demonstrate how he sent 1 BTC over LN . Here is his YT channel with more demo videos https://www.youtube.com/user/renepickhardt/videos
Over LN you can literally stream payments. The only restriction is the size of the channels on the path. If you can find enough liquidity, you can send 1 BTC easily.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/pickhardt-payments-how-to-send-large-bitcoin-payments-on-lightning.
My personal biggest payment over LN was 5M sats, using 2 hops. But for example you could very easily send 5 payments of 1M each over the same route. Why smaller amounts is better? because sometimes the routes are limiting the max HTLC to avoid fast drainage of the channels.
I am not worried about the limitations imposed by nodes, but by people not using LN and opening big channels. I still see people opening tiny shity channels of 100ks sats, with public nodes ! Maybe for a private mobile node is OK a 100k sats channel, but for a public one, must be bigger than 3M-5M sats at least.
Imagine a pipeline struggling to send large volume of water through tiny pipes....
Very good question btw.
It must be a hassle for node operators to rebalance channel liquidity when large amounts are constantly being moved, tho
I think there are apps for this... that balance channels/manage liquidity automatically.
I'm not the right person to ask. @DarthCoin be able to help you. I think if the channels have sufficient liquidity, it's possible. For those amounts, though, I'd probably use the mainnet.
100%
just wanted to get a general sense of the situation. Thanks!
For me at least... like 300 sats maybe less usually. I've sent and received 10 sats many many times... and I even get auto withdrawals for like 1 or 2 sats at a time.
Anything larger than $100 I go for on-chain... YMMV
Never yet had a transaction declined because it's being too large...
Usually just some tech/connection/Tor issue in case they don't go through. (Then again, largest payment I've ever done over Lightning is probs 1M sats or so)
LN : EXPENSES ONCHAIN : SAVINGS (ABOVE 1M SATs UTXO)
Be your own bank
Yes, but the OP asked about how usual people are sending large amount over LN.