Findel_LN asked almost 3 years ago

Is it fair to close a channel with no activity in 30 days ?

I assume the channel has a fair amount of outbound capacity that could be of better use.

1 Comment

LN+ Admin wrote almost 3 years ago

Depends what you mean by no activity.

If you mean that there is no routing or spending going, then the answer is: no. The idea is to keep the channels open throughout the duration of the swap agreement. Things to consider and why we should be patient:

Many of us are just getting started. We're still growing our nodes and opening channels. So smaller nodes can't yet route effectively. With time they will see more activity.
The adoption of LN among merchants and exchanges is still relatively low. This is changing rapidly and nodes will see increasingly more activity.
The price of BTC is down 35% from ATH at the moment. Once BTC price doubles or more from Today's prices those smaller channels will be increasingly more useful to route larger amounts.
Currently I have a feeling that the newly added liquidity is outstripping the demand because of the sudden growth of nodes, so you tend to only route with very low fees at the moment. We will soon find an equillibrium again and you will see activity.

If you mean the node is a zombie, because it's down a lot or all the time, the answer is: yes. Here is a longer answer on this specifically.

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