((("payment channel","operation", id="ix_09_channel_operation-asciidoc0", range="startofrange")))In this chapter we will bring together payment channels and hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs). In <<payment_channels>> we explained the way Alice and Bob construct a payment channel between their two nodes. We also looked at the commitment and penalty mechanisms that secure the payment channel. In <<routing>> we looked at hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) and how these can be used to route a payment across a path made of multiple payment channels. In this chapter we bring the two concepts together by looking at how HTLCs are managed on each payment channel, how the HTLCs are committed to the channel state, and how they are settled to update the channel balances.
Specifically, we will be discussing "Adding, settling, failing HTLCs" and the "Channel state machine" that form the overlap between the peer-to-peer layer and the routing layer, as highlighted by a double outline in <<LN_protocol_channelops_highlight>>.
Specifically, we will be discussing "Adding, settling, failing HTLCs" and the "Channel state machine" that form the overlap between the peer-to-peer layer and the routing layer, as highlighted by an outline in <<LN_protocol_channelops_highlight>>.
[[LN_protocol_channelops_highlight]]
.Channel operation and payment forwarding in the Lightning protocol suite
kristen@oreilly.com
3 years ago