rebalance-lnd

Using this script you can easily rebalance individual channels of your lnd node.

Installation

This script needs an active lnd 0.9.0+ (https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd) instance running. If you compile lnd yourself, you need to include the routerrpc build tag.

Example: make tags="autopilotrpc signrpc walletrpc chainrpc invoicesrpc routerrpc"

You need to have admin rights to control this node. By default, this script connects to localhost:10009, using the macaroon file in ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon. If you need to change this, please have a look at the optional arguments --grpc and --lnddir.

You need to install Python 3. The gRPC dependencies can be installed by running:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

If this fails, make sure you're running Python 3.

Usage

Command line arguments

usage: rebalance.py [-h] [--lnddir LNDDIR] [--grpc GRPC] [-r RATIO] [-l]
                    [-o | -i] [-f CHANNEL] [-t CHANNEL]
                    [-a AMOUNT | -p PERCENTAGE] [-e EXCLUDE]
                    [--max-fee-factor MAX_FEE_FACTOR | --econ-fee | --no-econ-fee]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --lnddir LNDDIR       (default ~/.lnd) lnd directory
  --grpc GRPC           (default localhost:10009) lnd gRPC endpoint
  -r RATIO, --ratio RATIO
                        (default: 50) ratio for channel imbalance between 1
                        and 50, eg. 45 to only show channels (-l) with less
                        than 45% of the funds on the local (-i) or remote (-o)
                        side

list candidates:
  Show the unbalanced channels.

  -l, --list-candidates
                        list candidate channels for rebalance
  -o, --outgoing        lists channels with less than x% of the funds on the
                        remote side (see --ratio)
  -i, --incoming        (default) lists channels with less than x% of the
                        funds on the local side (see --ratio)

rebalance:
  Rebalance a channel. You need to specify at least the 'from' channel (-f)
  or the 'to' channel (-t).

  -f CHANNEL, --from CHANNEL
                        Channel ID of the outgoing channel (funds will be
                        taken from this channel). You may also use the index
                        as shown in the incoming candidate list (-l -o), or -1
                        to choose a random candidate.
  -t CHANNEL, --to CHANNEL
                        Channel ID of the incoming channel (funds will be sent
                        to this channel). You may also use the index as shown
                        in the incoming candidate list (-l -i), or -1 to
                        choose a random candidate.
  -a AMOUNT, --amount AMOUNT
                        Amount of the rebalance, in satoshis. If not
                        specified, the amount computed for a perfect rebalance
                        will be used (up to the maximum of 4,294,967 satoshis)
  -p PERCENTAGE, --percentage PERCENTAGE
                        Set the amount to send to a percentage of the amount
                        required to rebalance. As an example, if this is set
                        to 50, the amount will half of the default. See
                        --amount.
  -e EXCLUDE, --exclude EXCLUDE
                        Exclude the given channel ID as the outgoing channel
                        (no funds will be taken out of excluded channels)
  --max-fee-factor MAX_FEE_FACTOR
                        (default: 10) Reject routes that cost more than x
                        times the lnd default (base: 1 sat, rate: 1 millionth
                        sat) per hop on average
  --econ-fee, --no-econ-fee
                        (default: disabled) Economy Fee Mode, see README.md"

List of channels

Run rebalance.py -l (or rebalance.py -l -i) to see a list of channels which can be rebalanced. This list only contains channels where less than 50% of the total funds are on the local side of the channel.

You can also see the list of channels where less than 50% of the total funds are on the remote side of the channel by running rebalance.py -l -o.

Use -r/--ratio to configure the sensitivity ratio (default is 50 for 50%). As an example, rebalance.py -l -o -r 10 only shows channels where less than 10% of the total funds are on the remote side of the channel.

As an example the following indicates a channel with around 17.7% of the funds on the local side:

(23) Channel ID:  123[...]456
Pubkey:           012345[...]abcdef
Channel Point:    abc0123[...]abc:0
Local ratio:      0.176
Capacity:         5,000,000
Remote balance:   4,110,320
Local balance:    883,364
Amount for 50-50: 1,613,478
|=====                       |

By sending 1,613,478 satoshis to yourself using this channel, a ratio of 50% can be achieved. This number is shown as "Amount for 50-50".

The last line shows a graphical representation of the channel. The total width is determined by the channel's capacity, where a channel with maximum capacity (16,777,215 satoshis) occupies the full width of your terminal. The bar (=) indicates the funds on the local side of the channel.

The number next to the channel ID (23 in the example) can be used to directly reference this channel.

Rebalancing a channel

To actually rebalance a channel, run the script and specify the channel to send funds to (-t) or from (-f). It is possible to use both -t and -f, but at least one of these arguments must be given. You can also specify the amount to send (using -a). You specify the channel(s) using the channel ID, as shown in the output of rebalance.py.

rebalance.py -t 123[...]456 -a 1613478

It is also possible to indicate the --to/-t channel by the number shown next to the channel ID (23 in the example).

rebalance.py -t 23 -a 1613478

If you do not specify the amount, the rebalance amount is determined automatically. As an alternative to specify the amount you may also set a percentage of the rebalance amount using -p. For example, the following command tries to send 20% of the amount required to rebalance the channel:

rebalance.py -t 23 -p 20

The maximum amount you can send in one transaction currently is limited (by the protocol) to 4,294,967 satoshis.

Fees

In order for the network to route your rebalance transaction, you have to pay fees. To protect yourself from "greedy" peers, certain routes are rejected by default by using --max-fee-factor with a default value of 10:

Reject routes that cost more than 10 times the lnd default (base: 1 sat, rate: 1 millionth sat) per hop on average.

Note that it may be necessary to pay higher fees, i.e. you'd need to set a higher --max-fee-factor.

Economy Fee Mode

As an alternative to --max-fee-factor, you can also enable the Economy Fee Mode using --econ-fee. If this mode is enabled, three different fees are taken into account:

1. The actual fee you'd have to pay for the rebalance transaction
2. The fee you'd earn if, instead of sending the funds due to your own rebalance transaction, your node is paid to forward the amount through the outbound (--from) channel
3. The fee you'd earn if, after the rebalance transaction is done, your node forwards the amount back again through the inbound (--to) channel

The rebalance transaction is not performed if the direct costs (1) plus the implicit costs (2) are higher than the possible future income (3).

Example

You have lots of funds in channel A and nothing in channel B. You would like to send half of the funds through channel A (outbound channel) through the lightning network, and finally back into channel B. This incurs a transaction fee you'd have to pay for the transaction. This is the direct cost (1).

Furthermore, if in the future there is demand for your node to route funds through channel A, you cannot do that as much (because you reduced outbound liquidity in the channel). This is the implicit cost (2).

Finally, you rebalance channel B in the hope that lateron someone reqeusts your node to forward funds from your own node through channel B towards the peer at the other end, so that you can earn fees for this. These fees are the possible future income (3).

Warning

To determine the future income, the fee set as part of the channel policy is used in the computation. As such, if you set a too high fee rate, with --econ-mode you'd allow more expensive rebalance transactions. Please make sure to set realistic fee rates, which at best are already known to attract forwardings. To protect you from making mistakes, --econ-mode only works if the inbound channel has a fee rate of less than 10,000 sat per 1M sat (which corresponds to a 1% fee).

Contributing

Contributions are highly welcome! Feel free to submit issues and pull requests on https://github.com/C-Otto/rebalance-lnd/

Please also consider opening a channel with one of our nodes, or sending tips via keysend:

• C-Otto: 027ce055380348d7812d2ae7745701c9f93e70c1adeb2657f053f91df4f2843c71@157.90.112.145:9735
• wamde: 0269b91661812bae52280a68eec2b89d38bf26b33966441ad70aa365e120a125ff@82.36.141.97:9735