Payment channel networks, such as Bitcoin's Lightning Network, promise to improve the scalability of blockchain systems by processing the majority of transactions off-chain. Due to the design, the positioning of nodes in the network topology is a highly influential factor regarding the experienced performance, costs, and fee revenue of network participants. As a consequence, today's Lightning Network is built around a small number of highly-connected hubs. Recent literature shows the centralizing tendencies to be incentive-compatible and at the same time detrimental to security and privacy. The choice of attachment strategies therefore becomes a crucial factor for the future of such systems. In this paper, we provide an empirical study on the (local and global) impact of various attachment strategies for payment channel networks. To this end, we introduce candidate strategies from the field of graph theory and analyze them with respect to their computational complexity as well as their repercussions for end users and service providers. Moreover, we evaluate their long-term impact on the network topology.

中文翻译：

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依恋策略对支付渠道网络的影响

诸如比特币的闪电网络之类的支付渠道网络有望通过处理链下大部分交易来改善区块链系统的可扩展性。由于设计的原因，网络拓扑中节点的位置对于网络参与者的体验性能，成本和费用收入具有很大的影响力。因此，当今的闪电网络是围绕少量高度连接的集线器构建的。最近的文献表明，集中化的趋势是激励兼容的，同时又不利于安全和隐私。因此，连接策略的选择成为此类系统未来的关键因素。在本文中，我们提供了关于各种附件策略对支付渠道网络的（本地和全球）影响的实证研究。为此，我们从图论领域介绍了候选策略，并分析了它们的计算复杂性以及它们对最终用户和服务提供商的影响。此外，我们评估了它们对网络拓扑的长期影响。