how?
Discussion
Majority of liquidity and channels are concentrated in the top 20 nodes, and those 20 nodes are hosted with 3 hosting providers.
There is some truth to it, but ultimately they could all collapse and the network still runs, because of the plebs
Similar story with mining
Well the point of lightning is not for someone with 0.1 BTC to be able to use 100 BTC of liquidity, It is that they can be connected through channels that allow them to interact with faster settlement. In order to be a central node you need to be interconnected to tons of other nodes, so you almost cannot be entirely centralized on lightning even if you wanted to be.
It's like it simultaneously incentives centralization and meshing my brain hurts
Insofar as it incentivizes centralization. It seems reasonable that most lightning node operators with dreams of eventually earning yield from it are going to want exposure to the highest traffic areas -- which will be the largest nodes, who increasingly become the common target of channel builders.
But as nostr:npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8 noted in another reply, this might not functionally matter much. Anyone can still build a channel to anyone else. So even if a massive node were to go down, the incentive is also there to quickly heal the network. I guess the problem there becomes when high fees are a normal thing, but hopefully we have time for that.