# Topological Analysis of Bitcoin's Lightning Network

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes the topological structure of Bitcoin's Lightning Network, revealing how its current network properties impact security and suggesting improvements to enhance its efficiency and safety.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed topological analysis of LN and proposes ways to improve its security by addressing current structural limitations.

## Key findings

- LN's current topology affects routing efficiency
- Structural properties influence LN's security
- Potential improvements can enhance LN's performance

## Abstract

Bitcoin's Lightning Network (LN) is a scalability solution for Bitcoin allowing transactions to be issued with negligible fees and settled instantly at scale. In order to use LN, funds need to be locked in payment channels on the Bitcoin blockchain (Layer-1) for subsequent use in LN (Layer-2). LN is comprised of many payment channels forming a payment channel network. LN's promise is that relatively few payment channels already enable anyone to efficiently, securely and privately route payments across the whole network. In this paper, we quantify the structural properties of LN and argue that LN's current topological properties can be ameliorated in order to improve the security of LN, enabling it to reach its true potential.