Topology and Network Dynamics of the Lightning Network: A Comprehensive Analysis
Danila Valko, Jorge Marx Gómez
TL;DR
The paper addresses how the Lightning Network's topology evolves over time and how this affects routing and resilience. It analyzes 336 reconstructed LN topology snapshots spanning 2019–2023 and computes 47 network-science metrics to quantify structural stability and dynamics. The results show the LN remains sparse yet scale-free with a power-law degree distribution $P(k) \sim k^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha \approx 2.19$ and $R^2 \approx 0.84$, but exhibits growing fragmentation (more bridges, lower clustering) and rising centralization (Gini centrality $> 0.95$) while maintaining a high core stability (node/channel intersection rates $> 0.95$). The authors provide openly available data and method pipelines to support reproducibility and inform routing and resilience design for LN-like PCNs.
Abstract
Leveraging a validated set of reconstructed Lightning Network topology snapshots spanning five years (2019-2023), we computed 47 computationally intensive metrics and network attributes, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the network's structure and temporal dynamics. Our results corroborate prior topology studies while offering deeper insight into the network's structural evolution. In particular, we quantify the network's topological stability over time, yielding implications for the design of heuristic-based pathfinding and routing protocols. More broadly, this work provides a detailed characterization of publicly available Lightning Network snapshots, supporting future research in Payment Channel Network analysis and network science.