This systematic literature review analyzes payment channel networks, focusing on security and protocol designs, indicating significant gaps in network topology research.
Abstract Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) are foundational to scaling blockchain-based transactions by enabling fast, low-cost, and off-chain micropayments. This systematic literature review presents a comprehensive analysis of the PCN research landscape, with a particular emphasis on the Lightning Network (LN). Using the PRISMA methodology, we analyze 313 peer-reviewed papers and preprints published between 2015 and mid-2025. We categorize contributions into new protocol designs, protocol enhancements, and analytical studies, and further classify them by focus areas: security, performance, economics, and network topology. Our findings show a strong research emphasis on novel protocols and security, while economic and topological aspects remain comparatively underexplored. We also evaluate the validation practices used in PCN research, identifying a widespread reliance on synthetic topologies and simulations, and a lack of standardized real-world benchmarks. This review provides a structured overview of key developments, highlights methodological gaps, and offers a final literature dataset to support future research and development in scalable blockchain payment infrastructures.
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Valko et al. (2025) studied this question.
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