So the Lightning Network channels are declining while node count is up.
Does this mean the channel paths are calcifying around well worn routes? Any LN experts out there know what's causing this divergence?
Discussion
The tend has been going on for a while otherwise I’d say it’s a reaction to the high on chain fees (opening new channels).
We’re all lazy. Hard work to maintain a well connected node.
Anecdotally, I recently closed a channel with a bad peer (high routing fees and poor uptime) which I had opened when fees were way lower and I was much less serious about who I was peers with.
When lightning liquidity is more expensive, it becomes more important to have it with reliable peers.
I wonder if wallets like Phoenix are contributing to this. I understand that each Phoenix wallet is also a light LNC node with a channel to a well connected ACINQ node.
Most Bitcoiners probably shouldn't be trying to run a routing lightning node (ie attempting to derive an income from the node). A few fat channels with well connected nodes is more than enough to spend your sats without permission, in a high fee environment.
Why would you open channels on this fee regiment? It's super expensive, so the only thing that is happening after FCs.
As a humble node operator this trend fits with my own channel management. In a low fee environment I don't care so much about small channels and force closes, now I am increasing the channel size to my best peers moving capital from the smaller and less reliable ones.
I think people are probably just making bigger channels with their bitcoin so that they don’t have to pay so much for onchain fees.
Hey nostr:npub1clwvhf87gsn20v02ywd9vda6gratnp3v3jrtxvc0ue0f7en5xhmq3xxhme
are you still observing this topic?
I'm trying to get into it and have the feeling that the ln node world is not that open to everybody. Seems to me as the same development as with the mining industry.
Maybe we can catch up on this.
Mateusz