Pricing for Routing and Flow-Control in Payment Channel Networks
Suryanarayana Sankagiri, Bruce Hajek

TL;DR
This paper introduces DEBT control, a protocol for payment channel networks that optimizes routing and flow-control by setting dynamic prices, ensuring efficient operation under steady-state demand.
Contribution
It presents a novel joint routing and flow-control protocol with pricing mechanisms, formulated via network utility maximization, with proven convergence and simulation validation.
Findings
The protocol converges to an optimal operating state.
Dynamic pricing guides transaction flow effectively.
Simulations demonstrate protocol stability and efficiency.
Abstract
A payment channel network is a blockchain-based overlay mechanism that allows parties to transact more efficiently than directly using the blockchain. These networks are composed of payment channels that carry transactions between pairs of users. Due to its design, a payment channel cannot sustain a net flow of money in either direction indefinitely. Therefore, a payment channel network cannot serve transaction requests arbitrarily over a long period of time. We introduce DEBT control, a joint routing and flow-control protocol that guides a payment channel network towards an optimal operating state for any steady-state demand. In this protocol, each channel sets a price for routing transactions through it. Transacting users make flow-control and routing decisions by responding to these prices. A channel updates its price based on the net flow of money through it. The protocol is…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsBlockchain Technology Applications and Security · Advanced Queuing Theory Analysis · Game Theory and Applications
