A meta-guide for navigating Payment Channel Network research — paper reading order, research area taxonomy, career paths, and how to identify your own research contribution.
Click any research area to see key papers, current frontiers, difficulty, and prerequisites. Edges show conceptual dependencies between areas.
← Click a research area bubble to see details, key papers, and open problems.
Select your research background. A personalized reading path will appear, ordered to leverage what you already know and fill the gaps you need.
You know ZK proofs, digital signatures, hash functions, game-based security proofs. New to Bitcoin channels and routing.
You know consensus, P2P networks, fault tolerance, distributed protocols. New to Bitcoin Script and channels.
You know mechanism design, Nash equilibrium, market microstructure. New to blockchain and payment channels.
You know anonymity networks (Tor), traffic analysis, side channels, deanonymization. New to Lightning.
For each area: maturity, definitive answers, active open problems, and tractable entry points for new researchers.
Top publication venues that regularly accept PCN papers, ranked by prestige. Use the decision tree to match your contribution type to the right venue.
The flagship security venue. Formal security proofs, novel attacks on deployed systems.
~15% acceptanceStrong security + crypto. Favors systems + formal security combinations.
~18% acceptanceSystems + security. Empirical measurement and large-scale analysis papers excel here.
~15% acceptanceProtocol security, network measurement. Strong fit for LN jamming and routing security.
~20% acceptanceCryptography-heavy work. PQ adaptor sigs, UC proofs, formal protocol definitions.
~20% acceptanceBitcoin/LN papers, highly relevant. Slightly lower bar than S, but prestigious in the community.
PCN-focusedSpecifically for blockchain and LN research. Very relevant community, less competitive.
PCN-focusedEuropean security venue. Good option for security papers with a protocol focus.
~25% acceptanceStrong crypto theory. Good for adaptor signature constructions, threshold protocols.
~20% acceptancePrivacy-focused papers. Route blinding, payment correlation analysis, deanonymization.
~25% acceptanceJournal format. Good for comprehensive measurement studies with room to elaborate.
JournalNot peer-reviewed, but very high community visibility. Good for protocol proposals.
CommunityJournal. Systems security and formal verification work fits here.
JournalClick each type to see what a new paper of that style must include — and canonical examples from PCN research.
State of the field: from research idea to production deployment. ✅ complete · 🔶 partial/in-progress · ❌ not started.
| Feature / Protocol | Research | Paper | Spec | Implemented | Deployed | Notes |
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Click any paper to highlight its lineage — ancestors (papers it builds on) and descendants (papers that extend it). Use this to navigate the citation graph and find your entry point.
Click a paper node to see its citation relationships.
A research readiness checklist. Check off items as you complete them — your readiness score updates in real time.
Descriptions only — search for these to find them.
The official Lightning Network protocol specifications (BOLT #0–#12). Essential reading for any protocol-level research. Available at lightning/bolts on GitHub.
GitHub · SpecPoon & Dryja, 2016. The foundational document. Read this first regardless of your background. PDF freely available online.
Paper · WhitepaperPreprint server for cryptography papers. Most PCN cryptography papers appear here before or simultaneously with conference publication. Free access.
Preprint ServerActive research community channel for Bitcoin and Lightning research discussion. Researchers, protocol developers, and students interact here.
CommunityThe official technical mailing list for Lightning Network protocol development. Proposals, discussions, and early-stage ideas discussed by core developers.
Mailing ListWeekly technical newsletter covering Bitcoin and LN developments. Excellent for staying current on what's being implemented and proposed.
NewsletterThe three major LN implementations. Reading source code is often the fastest path to understanding what's actually deployed vs. what's still theoretical.
Open SourceRené Pickhardt's blog and research notes on payment optimization and routing. Accessible explanations of the optimal payment flow theory.
Blog · Research Notes