Research corpus InteroperabilityBLC-STUDY-0178

Scalable Funding of Bitcoin Micropayment Channel Networks

A factory is a shared on-chain output that several parties can use to allocate many channels off-chain, so the chain sees the factory and not every channel.

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Record

Authors: Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer
Date: 2018
Publisher: Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer
Version: Source cited by the 2018 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0178
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

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Direct answer

A factory is a shared on-chain output that several parties can use to allocate many channels off-chain, so the chain sees the factory and not every channel.

Where to read

Official source — Burchert, Decker, Wattenhofer
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.

Full text

Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.

What changed

A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.

Relationships

Canonical readingChannel factories study
Related paperLightning
Related paperEltoo

Cite this record

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Author–date

Burchert, C., Decker, C., & Wattenhofer, R. (2018). Scalable Funding of Bitcoin Micropayment Channel Networks. Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer. https://tik-old.ee.ethz.ch/file/a20a865ce40d40c8f942cf206a7cba96/Scalable_Funding_Of_Blockchain_Micropayment_Networks%20(1).pdf

BibTeX

@techreport{channelfactories2018,
  title = {Scalable Funding of Bitcoin Micropayment Channel Networks},
  author = {Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer},
  year = {2018},
  institution = {Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer},
  url = {https://tik-old.ee.ethz.ch/file/a20a865ce40d40c8f942cf206a7cba96/Scalable_Funding_Of_Blockchain_Micropayment_Networks%20(1).pdf},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/channel-factories}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - Scalable Funding of Bitcoin Micropayment Channel Networks
AU  - Conrad Burchert
AU  - Christian Decker
AU  - Roger Wattenhofer
PY  - 2018
PB  - Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer
UR  - https://tik-old.ee.ethz.ch/file/a20a865ce40d40c8f942cf206a7cba96/Scalable_Funding_Of_Blockchain_Micropayment_Networks%20(1).pdf
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0178",
    "title": "Scalable Funding of Bitcoin Micropayment Channel Networks",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Conrad Burchert"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Christian Decker"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Roger Wattenhofer"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2018
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Conrad Burchert, Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer",
    "URL": "https://tik-old.ee.ethz.ch/file/a20a865ce40d40c8f942cf206a7cba96/Scalable_Funding_Of_Blockchain_Micropayment_Networks%20(1).pdf",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

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Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

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