Follow the public part of Lightning through visible capacity, announced channels, and reachable nodes—without pretending private connections are fully countable.
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Two parties lock bitcoin into a funding transaction, then exchange signed balance updates without putting every payment on the blockchain. The channel can later close and settle its final state on Bitcoin.
Payments may travel through several channels. That routing makes liquidity direction and channel balance important—not only total public capacity.
Learn how Lightning works →Public explorers observe announced nodes and channels. Private channels, unannounced nodes, offline peers, and some hosted balances cannot be counted completely. Capacity is therefore a visible lower-bound view, not a full audit of Lightning.
The chart never identifies a user, opens a channel, or connects to a wallet.
Operators may close old channels, rebalance funds, replace many small channels with fewer useful ones, or move activity into private channels. Public capacity is one signal, not a score for every payment.
Channel count shows connections, while node count shows announced participants. Neither metric proves that routes are reliable. Use the Bitcoin fee and mempool explorer to understand the on-chain cost of opening or closing channels.
Running a node adds operational duties. A user must protect keys and channel state, keep software current, and understand whether a wallet is custodial. Failed routes and depleted outbound liquidity can interrupt payments.
Before moving funds, read how Bitcoin wallets work and the Bitcoin security path. This explorer is educational and never recommends a provider.
A public graph is useful only when its blind spots stay visible.
| Public figure | What enters the count | What may be missing | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channel capacity | BTC committed to announced public channels | Private channels, hosted balances, and internal custodial ledgers | Track the visible liquidity base over time |
| Channel count | Announced public channel edges | Unannounced channels and channels not visible to the observer | Study visible network connection trends |
| Node count | Publicly announced nodes found by the data source | Private, offline, unreachable, and recently changed nodes | Estimate the visible routing-node set |
| Payment success | Not measured by this dashboard | Private route attempts, balances, fees, and failure reasons | Requires a controlled payment test with stated endpoints |
A larger public network does not automatically mean every payment succeeds. Read how Lightning routes payments before comparing capacity or channel counts.
Announced nodes, channels, and capacity help describe the public routing graph. Private channels and custodial balances mean the complete network is larger and harder to count.
Channel capacity counts bitcoin committed to visible channels. It does not reveal how often that bitcoin moves or whether liquidity points in the needed direction.
Payment success depends on connected paths, available outbound liquidity, fee limits, timeouts, and node uptime.
| Measurement | Visible evidence | Missing evidence | Better question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nodes | Announced routing identities | Private and offline nodes | How many are recently reachable? |
| Channels | Announced public edges | Private channels and balances | How is connectivity distributed? |
| Capacity | BTC in public channels | Direction and private liquidity | Can a chosen route carry a payment? |
| On-chain opens | Funding transactions | Hosted and internal balances | What fees and custody model apply? |