V3 Transactions are still vulnerable to significant tx pinning griefing attacks

Determining the relevance of scenarios in the context of channel force closures in the Lightning Network is crucial, and this discussion centers around understanding common patterns in such events. An examination of channel force closures reveals that it is quite typical for channels to be closed without pending HTLCs (Hashed Time-Locked Contracts). Empirical evidence from personal observations shows that a significant majority of force closures occurred without any outstanding HTLCs. Specifically, a review of 15 recent force closures on one node indicated that 12 had no pending HTLCs, while the remaining closures involved only a few HTLCs.

Further analysis of another well-connected node, fixedfloat, corroborated these findings; out of 15 force closures, 11 featured no outstanding HTLCs, with just a minority having a single HTLC pending. However, not all pending HTLCs were financially sensible to pursue due to the fee costs outweighing the value of the HTLC itself.

These findings suggest that the most frequent type of force closures are indeed those without any pending HTLCs – which could be deemed as the least complex or "boring" cases. Moreover, the data implies that if Lightning implementations were to enhance their economic management features, the proportion of force closures without outstanding HTLCs would likely increase. For further insights and details on the economic aspects of the Lightning Network, Peter Todd's website can be visited at https://petertodd.org, and he can be contacted via email at 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org.