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Bitcoin: What happens if HTLC value is below dust limit

Published by Terlumun Aondover on February 5th, 2025.

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The Importance of Hash Time Locks (HTLC) in Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s architecture relies heavily on Hash Time Locks (HTLC), a critical component that enables secure and decentralized payment transactions. In this article, we will look at the concept of HTLC, its limitations, and what happens when the Hash Time Lock value falls below the dust line.

What are Hash Time Locks (HTLC)?

Bitcoin: What happens if HTLC value is below dust limit

Hash Time Locks are a mechanism used to create a secure and trusted way for nodes on the Bitcoin network to agree on the amount of work required to validate a transaction. The HTLC is a combination lock that requires both parties to agree to certain conditions before releasing their corresponding outputs from the transaction.

How does HTLC work?

Here’s a simplified overview:

A node proposes a transaction and broadcasts it to the network.

Other nodes verify the transaction, including checking for valid inputs and outputs.

After verification, the proposing node creates a hash of the transaction data.

The proposed Hash Time Lock (HTL) value is calculated based on the transaction’s input parameters, such as transaction fees and time.

Another node generates a corresponding Hash Time Lock (HTL) value, which depends on the HTL value created by another node, called the “root.”

Both nodes then verify that their proposed HTL values are correct and agree on the amount of work required to validate the transaction.

What happens if the HTLC value is below the dust limit?

The Hash Time Lock (HTL) value represents a certain amount of work that must be done by the network before corresponding outputs are released. If the HTL falls below the dust limit, which is set at 6.25 BTC, the transaction fails. This means that the proposing node cannot create an HTLC output because the transaction would rarely propagate.

Why is this a problem?

If the HTL is too low, the transaction becomes increasingly difficult to propagate as nodes are less likely to accept it. This in turn can lead to network congestion and reduced scalability. Additionally, if nodes cannot validate transactions due to insufficient HTL values, they may abandon their deposits or leave the network, further exacerbating the problem.

Logic tells me that you cannot create an HTLC output because the transaction would rarely propagate.

This is a critical limitation of the Bitcoin architecture. The HTLC mechanism relies on the propagation and validation of transactions by nodes on the network. If it fails, it means there are no trusted parties willing to accept the transaction and therefore it will not propagate.

How to make multi-hop payments?

To overcome this limitation, new payment protocols have been developed, such as Lightning Network (LN). LN enables faster and more secure transactions by allowing nodes to create “payment paths” between different locations on the network. These payment paths are verified through a series of complex calculations and use HTLC values to ensure the transaction is valid.

To summarize, Hash Time Locks play a crucial role in Bitcoin’s architecture as they ensure the security and integrity of transactions. However, when the HTL value drops below the dust line, it becomes increasingly difficult for nodes to propagate transactions, which can lead to network congestion. New payment protocols such as Lightning Network aim to mitigate this problem by enabling secure and fast multi-hop payments.