The Arteries of the Bitcoin Ecosystem: An Empirical Analysis of the Lightning Network’s Routing Efficiency and Topology

The Bitcoin network, as the bedrock of the cryptocurrency revolution, offers unparalleled security and decentralization for value transfers. However, its inherent scaling limitations, particularly the restricted transaction capacity of the base layer (around 7 transactions per second), have spurred the development of off-chain scaling solutions. The Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) stands as the most prominent…

"An Economic Analysis of Difficulty Adjustment Algorithms in Proof-of-Work Blockchain Systems" models Bitcoin's DAA to reveal vulnerabilities and its impact on block rate stability, treating it as a policy target.