rebalance-lnd

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

Installation

This script needs an active lnd 0.7+ (https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd) instance running. If you compile lnd yourself, you need to include the routerrpc build tag.

Example: make install 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 sources.

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

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Command line arguments

usage: rebalance.py [-h] [-r RATIO] [-l] [-o | -i] [-f CHANNEL] [-t CHANNEL]
                    [-a AMOUNT] [-e EXCLUDE] [--max-fee-factor MAX_FEE_FACTOR]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -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 'to' channel (-t).

  -f CHANNEL, --from CHANNEL
                        channel ID of the outgoing channel (funds will be
                        taken from this channel)
  -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).
  -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)
  -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

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
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 using -t. Optionally you can also specify the channel to take the funds from (using -f), and 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 for the destination channel (-t) is determined automatically.

If you specify a channel using -f, the funds are taken from that channel.

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

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:

C-Otto: 027ce055380348d7812d2ae7745701c9f93e70c1adeb2657f053f91df4f2843c71@137.226.34.46:9735
wamde: 0269b91661812bae52280a68eec2b89d38bf26b33966441ad70aa365e120a125ff@82.36.141.97:9735