Comparative Analysis of Lightning's Routing Clients
Article: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9566199
Summary Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/roasbeef/status/1453434255237795840
Last updated
| Implementations | LND | Core Lightning |
|---|---|---|
Codebase
written in Go github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd
written in C with plugins in various languages github.com/ElementsProject/lightning
Documentation
Contact
IRC libera.chat #c-lightning t.me/lightningd
Main advantages
bigger networkshare and team more services built on top detailed documentation bundled with services and GUI in lit binaries provided for various platforms
specs driven modular development ensures flexibility very modest hardware need even as a routing node built with privacy as a priority in mind
Multiple channels between two peers
yes
yes since v0.11.0
Keysend
optional
on by default
Payments
most efficient in finding the shortest path best success rate a cost function takes recent failures into consideration
prefers low locktimes takes channel sizes into account since v0.10.2 (Pickhardt Payments) Slightly more expensive due to randomization for privacy the logic can be replaced with plugins
MPP (multi part payments)
optional
on by default
Swaps
Loop service (with daemon) Boltz.exchange (with daemon) PeerSwap
Boltz.exchange through website + API PeerSwap
Autopilot
built in, but limited
CLBOSS plugin with advanced logic
Watchtower
built in not incentivised
available as a plugin for Eye of Satoshi not incentivised
Dymanic fee settings
solved by external tools like charge-lnd and Balance of Satoshis
feeadjuster plugin, CLBOSS
Dual funded channels
manual, using PSBTs and/or Balance of Satoshis
experimental feature automated with liquidity ads
Paid incoming channels
Pool service including sidecar channels Voltage Flow amboss.space Magma
boltz.exchange plugin liquidity ads amboss.space Magma
Privacy
full Tor support
Full Tor support MPP usage by default Route Randomization Shadow Route (virtual extension of hops)
WebUI
RTL Thunderhub Lightning Terminal
RTL Spark Wallet / Sparko
Mobile Apps
Zeus Fully Noded (iOS only) Zap Android (iOS unmaintained)
Zeus Fully Noded (iOS only)
Database format
bbolt by default (restarts needed to compact) experinemtal etcd full postgres support
sqlite3 by default (compacts on-the-fly) full postgres support
Backups and recovery
seedwords + SCB (status channel backups) github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/master/docs/recovery.md node-recovery.com
hsmsecret hex (optional seedwords) + append-only (low wear) backup of the sqlite3 database with the backup plugin sqlite3 replication to a custom path or NFS mount lightning.readthedocs.io/BACKUP.html