Toward a framework for performance and carbon footprint assessment of payment channel network solutions
Danila Valko and Jorge Marx Gómez
Proc. of the EnviroInfo 2026 Conference
Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) have emerged as a critical scalability layer for blockchain infrastructures, most prominently exemplified by the Lightning Network built atop Bitcoin. While existing research on PCNs predominantly focuses on performance optimization, sustainability-related metrics such as energy consumption and carbon footprint remain largely under-reported.This paper introduces a framework on performance and carbon footprint evaluation for PCN solutions and provides actionable work-in-progress recommendations for researchers and developers grounded in the FAIR+S framework, which extends FAIR by explicitly incorporating sustainability principles. Methodologically, we adopt a systematic literature review combined with metric mining across 313 PCN publications to identify, classify, and assess reported performance indicators. Our analysis revealed that the only 134 publications have reported quantitative performance metrics: 89 (66.4%) of them proposed algorithmic or topological performance improvements, 25 (18.7%) disclosed sufficient hardware context, and only 3 (2.2%) explicitly addressed energy efficiency or sustainability. These 134 publications constitute a performance-oriented subset that served as the source for the underlying metric mining and taxonomy construction.Based on these, we propose a structured metrics taxonomy that links conventional performance dimensions, including time, computation, communication overhead, and success rate, to energy- and carbon-relevant proxies using community-accepted tools and specifications. The resulting FAIR+S-aligned evaluation framework promotes transparent and environmentally accountable PCN research.
September / 2026
inproceedings
