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LN channel reserve question
338 sats \ 4 comments \ @aliceandthewonderland 9 Jan bitcoin_beginners
Reading through articles to grasp concept of channel reserve here:
I understand that a 1% channel reserve must be maintained in the Bitcoin Lightning Network. However, I’m unclear whether this 1% applies to the total channel capacity or if it must be maintained from each participant’s outbound liquidity. Based on the BOLT 2 document, it seems to be the latter, but I would appreciate an explanation to clarify this.
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13 sats \ 3 replies \ @ChrisS 9 Jan
My understanding is the 1 percent is suggested but the peers can decide what they want it to be. Each side maintains the reserve as a percent of the total capacity. If one side starts with a zero balance the protocol makes sure that node works toward the reserves as payments happen.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @aliceandthewonderland OP 9 Jan
Each side maintains the reserve as a percent of the total capacity.
It seems you’re correct—I tested it myself. With a 500k inbound channel using Voltage, it appears to set a 1% reserve of the total capacity, which amounts to 5,000 sats. I was able to successfully send sats until the outbound liquidity was reduced to 5,001 sats. However, it seems the system doesn’t allow the balance to drop below 5,000 sats, as I kept encountering insufficient balance errors.
Don’t know why Bitcoin Design explained it like reserve value will dynamically changed on local liquidity end.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 9 Jan
The commit fee is changing based on mempool fees. That is affecting directly your channels "can send" and is very visible on smaller channels. But the channel reserve is mostly 1%. I think is possible to set thet % in your node settings, but I never use it.
Read here more about commit fee:
Then you have also the channel buffers: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/6dea86428d031171af30119e3f6599820dc5454a/lnwallet/channel.go#L3803-L3815
Then you have also the anchor reserves. I suggest to always have a UTXO of max 100k sats in your node onchain wallet, that can be used for these anchor reserves and bumping fees for opening/closing channels.
That's why not all wallet and node interface, will show up the correct "can send" or can receive" because are many other hidden aspects and sometimes in their inteface is quite hard to be reflected. But as a user you always have to take them in consideration. when is about to send or receive into a channel.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @aliceandthewonderland OP 9 Jan
Is it possible to check the current reserve value for my channels when using ThunderHub? If so, where can I find this information? If you know.
Each side maintains the reserve as a percent of the total capacity.
So it is x% of total capacity for reserve(?)
I was confused because of this Bitcoin Design
As defined in BOLT 2, the channel reserve amount dynamically trends towards 1% of the users local channel capacity.
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