Towards a Concurrent and Distributed Route Selection for Payment Channel Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel distributed algorithm for route selection in payment channel networks, modeling them as flow networks and ensuring capacity constraints through capacity locking.

Contribution

It presents an extended push-relabel algorithm enabling concurrent, distributed payment flow computation while maintaining capacity constraints in payment channel networks.

Findings

Algorithm ensures valid payment flows

Supports distributed and concurrent execution

First results demonstrate effectiveness

Abstract

Payment channel networks use off-chain transactions to provide virtually arbitrary transaction rates. In this paper, we provide a new perspective on payment channels and consider them as a flow network. We propose an extended push-relabel algorithm to find payment flows in a payment channel network. Our algorithm enables a distributed and concurrent execution without violating capacity constraints. To this end, we introduce the concept of capacity locking. We prove that flows are valid and present first results.