LN+ asked over 3 years ago
Where did my funds go from my new channel?
I opened a Bitcoin Lightning Network channel to a node with 1M SATs. Few days later I noticed that the available funds reduced by 100K. Did the other party stole my funds?
1 Comment
LN+ Admin wrote over 3 years ago
No. Do not worry. Your funds were not stolen.
It's a feature of the Bitcoin Lightning Network that all public channels can route funds for others. If somebody sent SATs to somebody else through your node, you routed funds for them. What happens in this situation is that you receive funds on one of your channels and you forward the same amount from another channel of yours. The total sum of your SATs on your node stays the same, only the funds get rearranged on your node.
When you send money to someone else on the Lightning Network and if you don't have a direct channel you will be routing through other nodes as well.
The benefit of serving the network as a routing node are as follows:
It's a feature of the Bitcoin Lightning Network that all public channels can route funds for others. If somebody sent SATs to somebody else through your node, you routed funds for them. What happens in this situation is that you receive funds on one of your channels and you forward the same amount from another channel of yours. The total sum of your SATs on your node stays the same, only the funds get rearranged on your node.
When you send money to someone else on the Lightning Network and if you don't have a direct channel you will be routing through other nodes as well.
The benefit of serving the network as a routing node are as follows:
- You earn routing fees, so the number of SATs on your node will increase slightly.
- Your channels can potentially get balanced if they were unbalanced.
- You help someone send funds.
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