MPCN-RP: A Routing Protocol for Blockchain-Based Multi-Charge Payment Channel Networks

Abstract

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are severely limited in transaction throughput and latency due to the need to seek consensus among all peers of the network. A promising solution to this issue is payment channels, which allow unlimited numbers of atomic and trust-free payments between two peers without exhausting the resources of the blockchain. A linked payment channel network enables payments between two peers without direct channels through a series of intermediate nodes that forward and charge for the transactions. However, the charging strategies of intermediate nodes vary with different payment channel networks. Existing works do not yet have a complete routing algorithm to provide the most economical path for users in a multi-charge payment channel network. In this work, we propose MPCN-RP, a general routing protocol for payment channel networks with multiple charges. Our extensive experimental results on both simulated and real payment channel networks show that MPCN-RP significantly outperforms the baseline algorithms in terms of time and fees.