Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks

Shira Werman; Aviv Zohar

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13

Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks

Shira Werman^*
, Aviv Zohar

^*Corresponding author for this work

The Rachel and Selim Benin School of Engineering and Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Payment transaction channels are one of the main proposed approaches to scaling cryptocurrency payment systems. Recent work by Malavolta et al. [7] has shown that the privacy of the protocol may conflict with its concurrent nature and may lead to deadlocks. In this paper we ask the natural question: Can payments in routing networks be routed so as to avoid deadlocks altogether? Our results show that it is in general NP-complete to determine whether a deadlock-free routing exists in a given payment graph. On the other hand, Given some fixed routing, we propose another way to resolve the problem of deadlocks. We offer a modification of the protocols in lightning network and in Fulgor [7] that pre-locks edges in an order that guarantees progress, while still maintaining the protocol’s privacy requirements.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings
Editors	Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro, Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí, Giovanni Livraga, Ruben Rios
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	175-187
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Print)	9783030003043
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13
State	Published - 2018
Event	2nd International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology, CBT 2018 held in conjunction with the 23rd European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2018 - Barcelona, Spain Duration: 6 Sep 2018 → 7 Sep 2018

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	11025 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	2nd International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology, CBT 2018 held in conjunction with the 23rd European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2018
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Barcelona
Period	6/09/18 → 7/09/18

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018.

Keywords

Bitcoin
Lightning Network
Payment Channels
Payment Network
Payment Routing

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13

Cite this

Werman, S., & Zohar, A. (2018). Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks. In J. Garcia-Alfaro, J. Herrera-Joancomartí, G. Livraga, & R. Rios (Eds.), Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings (pp. 175-187). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 11025 LNCS). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13

Werman, Shira ; Zohar, Aviv. / Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks. Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings. editor / Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro ; Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí ; Giovanni Livraga ; Ruben Rios. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2018. pp. 175-187 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "Payment transaction channels are one of the main proposed approaches to scaling cryptocurrency payment systems. Recent work by Malavolta et al. [7] has shown that the privacy of the protocol may conflict with its concurrent nature and may lead to deadlocks. In this paper we ask the natural question: Can payments in routing networks be routed so as to avoid deadlocks altogether? Our results show that it is in general NP-complete to determine whether a deadlock-free routing exists in a given payment graph. On the other hand, Given some fixed routing, we propose another way to resolve the problem of deadlocks. We offer a modification of the protocols in lightning network and in Fulgor [7] that pre-locks edges in an order that guarantees progress, while still maintaining the protocol{\textquoteright}s privacy requirements.",

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Werman, S & Zohar, A 2018, Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks. in J Garcia-Alfaro, J Herrera-Joancomartí, G Livraga & R Rios (eds), Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 11025 LNCS, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 175-187, 2nd International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology, CBT 2018 held in conjunction with the 23rd European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2018, Barcelona, Spain, 6/09/18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13

Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks. / Werman, Shira; Zohar, Aviv.
Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings. ed. / Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro; Jordi Herrera-Joancomartí; Giovanni Livraga; Ruben Rios. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2018. p. 175-187 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 11025 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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N2 - Payment transaction channels are one of the main proposed approaches to scaling cryptocurrency payment systems. Recent work by Malavolta et al. [7] has shown that the privacy of the protocol may conflict with its concurrent nature and may lead to deadlocks. In this paper we ask the natural question: Can payments in routing networks be routed so as to avoid deadlocks altogether? Our results show that it is in general NP-complete to determine whether a deadlock-free routing exists in a given payment graph. On the other hand, Given some fixed routing, we propose another way to resolve the problem of deadlocks. We offer a modification of the protocols in lightning network and in Fulgor [7] that pre-locks edges in an order that guarantees progress, while still maintaining the protocol’s privacy requirements.

AB - Payment transaction channels are one of the main proposed approaches to scaling cryptocurrency payment systems. Recent work by Malavolta et al. [7] has shown that the privacy of the protocol may conflict with its concurrent nature and may lead to deadlocks. In this paper we ask the natural question: Can payments in routing networks be routed so as to avoid deadlocks altogether? Our results show that it is in general NP-complete to determine whether a deadlock-free routing exists in a given payment graph. On the other hand, Given some fixed routing, we propose another way to resolve the problem of deadlocks. We offer a modification of the protocols in lightning network and in Fulgor [7] that pre-locks edges in an order that guarantees progress, while still maintaining the protocol’s privacy requirements.

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Werman S, Zohar A. Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks. In Garcia-Alfaro J, Herrera-Joancomartí J, Livraga G, Rios R, editors, Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology - ESORICS 2018 International Workshops, DPM 2018 and CBT 2018, Proceedings. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2018. p. 175-187. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-00305-0_13

Avoiding Deadlocks in Payment Channel Networks

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