Scaling the Lightning Network with Practical Set Reconciliation

2026-08-16

AI Summary

This study addresses the scalability bottleneck caused by the flooding mechanism in the Lightning Network Gossip protocol by proposing AdaptiveIBLT, a set reconciliation-based alternative to traditional synchronization methods. The protocol incorporates a partial decoding enhancement to enable adaptive and efficient reconciliation of topology and channel information. Evaluations via Core-Lightning simulations and real-world network snapshots demonstrate that this approach reduces Gossip reconciliation time from hours to minutes, significantly improving data synchronization efficiency among large-scale nodes. These results effectively validate the scalability and practical utility of set reconciliation in operational network environments, offering a viable solution to current propagation limitations in decentralized payment networks.

Abstract

The Lightning Network (LN) utilizes gossip to share network topology, channel announcements and updates, and node announcements among its local constituents. Yet, our measurements show that this flooding-based gossip reconciliation is fundamentally inefficient. We propose, instead, to use set reconciliation protocols for sharing this information, and we systematically evaluate existing approaches under realistic network conditions. We further propose ADAPTIVEIBLT, a novel adaptive IBLT (Invertible Bloom Lookup Table) protocol with a partial-decoding enhancement. By simulating reconciliation in Core-Lightning and evaluating real gossip snapshots, we demonstrate the practical benefits of reconciliation in scaling gossip reconciliation from hours down to a few minutes.

Problem

• Lightning Network
• Gossip Protocol
• Set Reconciliation
• Scalability
• Network Topology

Innovation

• Adaptive IBLT
• Set Reconciliation
• Lightning Network
• Partial Decoding
• Gossip Protocol