Not how many transactions. There can be infinite number of transactions between the opening transaction and the closing transaction.
A channel is a UTXO that is held in 2:2 multisig. This turns the UTXO into something that can be thought of like a string with beads on it. You hold one end of the string and ACINQ (in the case of Phoenix wallet) holds the other end of the string. The number of beads on the string is the total number of sats in the UTXO.
When you open the channel in Phoenix wallet, the amount of sats you put into the channel is the number of beads that are on your side of the string. The amount of sats that ACINQ ads to that channel at the time of opening is the number of beads on their side of the string.
For the sake of the illustration, let's say you opened a channel with 500k sats, and ACINQ added 200k. Your starting channel state would look like this, with each "bead" representing 100k sats:
maven -ooooo---oo- ACINQ
Now, let's say you bought something on Shopstr for 300k sats. Here's what your channel would look like after that transaction:
maven -oo---ooooo- ACINQ
Let's say you stack some sats directly to your Phoenix wallet, receiving 400k sats. Now your channel will look like this:
maven -oooooo---o- ACINQ
At this point, the maximum you can receive would now be 100k sats. If you try to receive more than that, you will end up needing additional liquidity added to ACINQ's side of the channel, and you will pay a higher fee for the on-chain transaction required to splice in the new liquidity.
However, you can go on with just the liquidity you have for years and years, making thousands and thousands of transactions, so long as the transaction amounts fit within the liquidity constraints of your channel.
Dikaios1517
npub1ku…v3lhe
2025-04-08 19:26:14
in reply to nevent1q…xwts
Author Public Key
npub1kun5628raxpm7usdkj62z2337hr77f3ryrg9cf0vjpyf4jvk9r9smv3lheSeen on
wss://nos.lolPublished at
2025-04-08 19:26:14Event JSON
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"content": "Not how many transactions. There can be infinite number of transactions between the opening transaction and the closing transaction.\n\nA channel is a UTXO that is held in 2:2 multisig. This turns the UTXO into something that can be thought of like a string with beads on it. You hold one end of the string and ACINQ (in the case of Phoenix wallet) holds the other end of the string. The number of beads on the string is the total number of sats in the UTXO.\n\nWhen you open the channel in Phoenix wallet, the amount of sats you put into the channel is the number of beads that are on your side of the string. The amount of sats that ACINQ ads to that channel at the time of opening is the number of beads on their side of the string.\n\nFor the sake of the illustration, let's say you opened a channel with 500k sats, and ACINQ added 200k. Your starting channel state would look like this, with each \"bead\" representing 100k sats:\n\nmaven -ooooo---oo- ACINQ\n\nNow, let's say you bought something on Shopstr for 300k sats. Here's what your channel would look like after that transaction:\n\nmaven -oo---ooooo- ACINQ\n\nLet's say you stack some sats directly to your Phoenix wallet, receiving 400k sats. Now your channel will look like this:\n\nmaven -oooooo---o- ACINQ\n\nAt this point, the maximum you can receive would now be 100k sats. If you try to receive more than that, you will end up needing additional liquidity added to ACINQ's side of the channel, and you will pay a higher fee for the on-chain transaction required to splice in the new liquidity.\n\nHowever, you can go on with just the liquidity you have for years and years, making thousands and thousands of transactions, so long as the transaction amounts fit within the liquidity constraints of your channel.",
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