Unannounced channels
Also covering Private channels
Unannounced channels are LN channels that are not advertised to the network for use in routing.
Most unannounced channels are believed to belong to users that simply don’t intend to route payments, such as users of mobile clients that aren’t always online to route payments.
An alternative name is private channels, but there’s contention between experts about whether the channels improve privacy or not, so it may be preferable to use the universally accepted name “unannounced channels.”
Optech newsletter and website mentions
2021
2020
- C-Lighting #3623 improves unannounced channel privacy when routing payments
- C-Lightning #3600 adds blinded paths to improve unannounced channel privacy
- Breaking the link between UTXOs and unannounced channels
- Eclair #1283 allows multipath payments to traverse unannounced channels
- C-Lightning #3351 enhances
invoice
RPC for private channels
2019
- Talk about LN topology and lack of public info about unannounced channels
- C-Lightning #2234 adds route hints for private channels to
invoice
RPC - C-Lightning #2230 adds a
private
flag to thelistpeers
RPC
2018
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