Credible Exit and the Law of Conservation of Blockspace
Bitcoin layers can increase cooperative payment throughput, but their non-custodial safety still depends
on the base layer when users must enforce without cooperation. Layers can move settlement demand through
time, coordination, and trust. They cannot create more unilateral enforcement blockspace.
The model counts exit units: unilateral enforcement traces. Human users, wallets, channels, VTXOs, or
accounts map onto those traces according to protocol topology. The core bound is:
Σᵢ Nᵢ eᵢ ≤ ρ · Cmax(W′)
Pick the enforcement window W′. Pick the per-exit-unit enforcement weight
e. Pick the relay/mining efficiency ρ. Then show where the exit units fit.
| Window |
Lightning active |
Ark template |
Operator template |
| Fast exit: 137 blocks |
74,928 |
136,931 |
128,876 |
| Layer benchmark: 2016 blocks |
1,102,594 |
2,014,992 |
1,896,463 |
| Slow settlement: 4032 blocks |
2,205,189 |
4,029,984 |
3,792,926 |
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