But that generally means you did something dishonest on the network like broadcast in old channel state or something trying to double spend.
Imo This is a tricky part of the lightning network because being offline for too long could result in something like this, even if you're not intentionally being dishonest.
I’ve been off line for a week and never paid a bad actor fee. How would someone initiate this kind of claim to say the other person was dishonest on the network?
As far as my understanding goes, a penalty transaction can only be submitted If you try to close a channel with an old commitment transaction.
As long as your channel states are up to date then you can't really be hit with a penalty transaction.
To pull a more articulate quote :
"For example, if Alice broadcasts the commitment with the most current state, Bob shouldn't be able to perform a penalty.
But if Alice broadcasts the revoked commitment transaction, Bob should be able to perform a penalty.
In order for Bob to perform a penalty:
* The transaction must have been revoked
* Bob needs to detect that Alice broadcast a revoked commitment transaction
* Bob needs to broadcast his penalty transaction that sweeps all of the funds before Alice is able to access her funds"
