Geolocated Lightning Network topology snapshots: A dataset covering 2019–2023
Danila Valko and Jorge Marx Gómez
Scientific Data
The Lightning Network (LN) is the most widely adopted second-layer solution for Bitcoin, enabling fast, low-cost transactions through a decentralized payment channel network. Despite its growing importance and the increasing interest from researchers across disciplines, progress in LN research is often impeded by limited access to structured, validated, and reproducible network data. In this paper, we present a curated collection of LN network snapshots spanning from January 2019 to July 2023, reconstructed from publicly available gossip message archives. We apply rigorous consistency checks, and enrich node metadata with city-level geolocation data derived from public IP addresses. The resulting dataset captures the temporal and spatial evolution of the LN, addresses a critical research gap, and provides a reproducible foundation for future empirical studies on network structure and dynamics – accessible not only to the computer science community but also to researchers in cryptocurrency and economics.
December / 2025
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