Benchmarking GNNs Using Lightning Network Data
This work provides domain-specific benchmarks for GNNs in cryptocurrency network analysis, but it is incremental as it applies existing methods to new data.
The paper tackled the problem of analyzing the Bitcoin Lightning Network's graph structure and node property relationships using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), resulting in benchmarks that show GNNs effectively enhance performance in these tasks.
The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol designed to facilitate fast and inexpensive Bitcoin transactions. It operates by establishing channels between users, where Bitcoin is locked and transactions are conducted off-chain until the channels are closed, with only the initial and final transactions recorded on the blockchain. Routing transactions through intermediary nodes is crucial for users without direct channels, allowing these routing nodes to collect fees for their services. Nodes announce their channels to the network, forming a graph with channels as edges. In this paper, we analyze the graph structure of the Lightning Network and investigate the statistical relationships between node properties using machine learning, particularly Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). We formulate a series of tasks to explore these relationships and provide benchmarks for GNN architectures, demonstrating how topological and neighbor information enhances performance. Our evaluation of several models reveals the effectiveness of GNNs in these tasks and highlights the insights gained from their application.