Network views tend to be the view of the network from a single node, or small selection of nodes. They are not complete views of the network. This is impossible to achieve. Even if many node views were combined, it would still be incomplete.
These network views, or network maps, have been termed 'visualisers' by the LN community.
Screenshots may reflect older visual styles, and are dated accordingly.
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reksplorer was among the first LN visualiser tools.
https://github.com/chemicstry/recksplorer
Example sites:
https://bl.ocks.org/tyzbit/e41587d241b0ab0f38273dc4b8dd571e
View with a VR viewer for full effect. 3D force maps in VR.
https://bl.ocks.org/tyzbit/d1c83732d2767bb955125d41f5921888
There are two visualisers at Robtex:
A. Animated paths
https://hashxp.org/lightning/path/ (404 now? and was https://www.robtex.com/lightning/path/)
B. Robtex Visualizer
https://hashxp.org/lightning/visualize/ (404 now? and was https://www.robtex.com/lightning/visualize/)
Top 314 channels
https://www.robtex.com/lightning/visualize/?num=314
Historical view, example early January 2018
https://www.robtex.com/lightning/visualize/?ut=1516040305
bitcoinexchangerate.org has a network map of the Lightning Network.
https://bitcoinexchangerate.org/lightning
The Lightning Network Search and Analysis Engine mainnet has a visual component.
https://1ml.com/visual/network
This is a web-based tool for interacting with your node, but it also has a new map view now.
Lightning Network Daemon Explorer http://lndexplorer.com/
Lightning Network Daemon Explorer Map https://graph.lndexplorer.com/
Github:
3d rendering from a single node on the mainnet network, in Africa
https://lnd3.vanilla.co.za/graphs/index.html
3d rendering from 4 nodes on the mainnet network
https://lnd3.vanilla.co.za/multinodegraphs/index.html
Blockchaincaffe has a mainnet view of the network over a geographical map, similar to the original ACINQ Explorer.
https://blockchaincaffe.org/map/
Graphviz output, takes a while to render, or a very wide SVG image, shown below with considerable zoom on a section.
lncli describegraph --render
Important: as of 2018-08-18 this has been removed from the source code in PR #1742.
Another way of visualising the network is probed balances to guess capacity as covered here.
https://www.moneni.com/lightningprobe
see https://medium.com/@robban_69827/playing-with-lightning-network-90ecc678fe70 for a detailed explanation.
OpenGL Lighting Network visualizer written in C + nanovg.
Unfortunately not a map view yet; a measure of network capacity in BTC
https://p2sh.info/dashboard/db/lightning-network
Unfortunately not a map view yet; visual metrics relating to the Lightning network
https://bitcoinvisuals.com/lightning
Unfortunately not a map view yet; general node explorer site
Lighting Network: Import the topology to the Neo4j Graph database
Here we describe how to export a node's local view of the network topology to a Neo4j database.
Another Neo4j project, "lngraph imports Lightning Network data into Neo4j for local exploration of your node and its view of the network."
https://github.com/xsb/lngraph
BitFury's LN project maintains a network monitor here:
https://lightningpeach.com/ln-monitor
Unfortunately not a map view yet, shows network stats.
Unfortunately not a map view; novel metrics measuring centrality in LN network
See https://medium.com/@jungly/measuring-node-centrality-in-lightning-network-8102a59999f0 for more info
Source: https://github.com/kulpreet/lightning-network-graph-analysis
https://lightninglayer.com/map
Unfortunately not a map view, however has lots of other useful metrics and charts.
https://lightblock.me/lightning-network-stats
LN's promise is that relatively few payment channels already enable anyone to efficiently, securely and privately route payments across the whole network. In this paper, we quantify the structural properties of LN and argue that LN's current topological properties can be ameliorated in order to improve the security of LN, enabling it to reach its true potential.
Satoshi's Garden is the first new LN visualiser in ~2 years.
LnRouter's Lightning network graph visualization is attached to an explorer
This isn't a full picture of the public network, but rather a subset of the whole. Nodes part of the Reddit Megahub, which are part of a liquidity triangle, are shown. Peers who want to form a liquidity triangle can do so via .
https://megahub.satoshis.tech/
This is from a tweet https://twitter.com/pymoment/status/1456099385411084288 and https://twitter.com/pymoment/status/1458098341313716241 with no URL for more info
Map view from the perspective of the node 'LNINSIGHTS.COM' with operator-set filters.
LnVisualizer or Lightning Network Visualizer, is an optionally self-hosted, graph visualization tool specifically made to draw the lightning network.
https://github.com/MaxKotlan/LN-Visualizer
LN Lighthouse was developed as a learning project.
Github:
Jason Wong has customised Recksplorer for LTC mainnet
Another implemention is available at https://ltc.roska.life/
This service appears to have disappeared - Aug 2023.
https://bl.ocks.org/tyzbit/ade826eb5363e02196c0940b2bf15d03
https://bl.ocks.org/bretton/4a51ab6aeba8e7a836840aed727566ad
Rstudio script to grab the latest describegraph state from my server and create a simpleNetwork graph. Easier to viz as html export
http://rpubs.com/callmekurisu/lnd
Code:
#LND Network Graph
#By @callmekurisu
library(rjson)
library(networkD3)
library(igraph)
json_data <- fromJSON(file="http://adwatcher.hopto.org:7777/graph/")
#intialize source and target variables
src <- json_data$edges[[1:1]]$node1_pub
target <- json_data$edges[[1:1]]$node2_pub
#interate through node data
for (i in (2:length(json_data$edges))){
src <- append(src, json_data$edges[[i:i]]$node1_pub)
target <- append(target, json_data$edges[[i:i]]$node2_pub)
}
graphData <- data.frame(src,target)
# Plot
simpleNetwork(graphData)
This is a web-based tool for interacting with your node, but it also has a map view and is being included here on that basis.
Lightning Network Daemon Explorer http://lndexplorer.com/
Demo Page Network View: http://demo1.lndexplorer.com/network
Github: https://github.com/altangent/lnd-explorer
This has been replaced by lnd-explorer.
(dead link) https://viz.lnportal.com
https://github.com/altangent/lightning-viz
The Lightning Network Search and Analysis Engine for testnet has a visual component.
https://1ml.com/testnet/visual/network
University project visualiser using LND and vis.js.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lightningnetwork/comments/8s7z5o/my_lightning_testnet_visualisermonitor/
Less an active explorer mapping view, more an example of a snapshot as art piece.
"Measuring 24"x36" inches, the Lightning Network Testnet as of February 25th featured 2832 nodes and 15747 channels. This is a showcase of the early adoption of the Lightning Network which makes for a wonderful conversation piece!"
https://lynxartcollection.com/collections/crypto-artwork/products/lightning-network-testnet
Graphviz output, takes a while to render, or a very wide SVG image, shown below with considerable zoom on a section.
lncli describegraph --render
2018-01-31
Playing about with the output of lncli describegraph. Each dot is a node that my node has seen in the last 48 hours.
The size of the dot is the amount of inbound connections it has open.
http://graph.ln.eightsquared.co.uk/
3d rendering from a single node on the LTC mainnet network, in Africa
Casa’s Starmap was a way to visually explore your Node and its connections on the Lightning Network.
The link is no longer active.
https://explore.casa/starmap
This tweet thread might also have something worth including
https://twitter.com/spudowiar/status/958056758131544064