【Author】
Nowostawski, Mariusz; Ton, Jardar
【Source】APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
【Abstract】Payment channels and off-chain transactions are used to address blockchain scalability. Those mechanisms rely on the blockchain proper, as the resolution mechanism. They allow for high transaction throughput due to the pure peer-to-peer nature of the transaction exchange that happens directly between the peers, without the involvement of the blockchain transactions. The transactions are not mediated through the blockchain but happen off-chain. The transactions in such overlay networks are not included in the blockchain, they nevertheless leave some data traces in a public ledger. We have used the Bitcoin mainnet and testnet blockchains together with the Lightning network node to explore what can be inferred from the underlying blockchain in the context of Lightning transactions, channel setup, and channel teardown. The main purpose of this study is to identify what methods, transaction signatures, and data can be used to understand the non-visible publicly off-chain transactions. We have proposed heuristics for identifying the setup and teardown transactions, quantified and analyzed the effectiveness of our proposed methods. Using the data from the Bitcoin blockchain, as well as the data from the Lightning network to link related information we have found when parsing the blockchain, we generate network graph representations showing the relationships between the Lightning network channels identified on the blockchain. This study is significant from the personal data and privacy perspectives, as well as from forensics. We have established that at least 75% of all P2WSH transactions are Lightning transactions, and some of the channels can be deduced from the blockchain analysis. The synthesized results demonstrate that our methods are viable for identifying a subset of transactions and that only partial topology of the payment channels can be obtained from the data left in the blockchain.
【Keywords】Blockchain; Bitcoin; Lightning; Lightning network; LN; off-chain transactions; forensics
【摘要】支付渠道和链下交易用于解决区块链可伸缩性。这些机制依赖于区块链本身作为解决机制。由于直接在对等点之间进行的事务交换具有纯粹的点对点特性，无需区块链事务的参与，因此它们允许高事务吞吐量。交易不是通过区块链进行调解，而是发生在链外。这种覆盖网络中的交易不包括在区块链中，但它们在公共分类账中留下了一些数据痕迹。我们使用了比特币主网和测试网区块链以及Lightning网络节点，探索在Lightning交易、通道设置和通道关闭的背景下，可以从底层区块链推断出什么。本研究的主要目的是确定哪些方法、交易签名和数据可以用来理解不可见的公开链外交易。我们提出了用于识别设置和拆卸事务的启发式方法，并对我们提出的方法的有效性进行了量化和分析。使用来自比特币区块链的数据，以及来自闪电网络的数据链接我们在解析区块链时发现的相关信息，我们生成网络图表示，显示区块链上识别的闪电网络通道之间的关系。本研究从个人数据和隐私的角度，以及从取证的角度来看都具有重要意义。我们已经确定所有P2WSH事务中至少75%是闪电事务，并且可以从区块链分析中推断出一些通道。综合结果表明，我们的方法对于识别事务子集是可行的，并且只能从区块链中剩余的数据中获得支付通道的部分拓扑。
【关键词】区块链;比特币;闪电;闪电网络;LN;off-chain事务;取证
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