Channels Stuck Closing

[boa76]

Lightning Channel Closure: I initiated the closure of a Lightning Network channel on my node approximately 10 days ago, but it still shows a "closing" status. Additionally, I noticed that I was charged twice for the closing transaction fees. How can I expedite the closure of this channel and prevent any further charges?

umbrel@umbrel:~ $ ~/umbrel/scripts/app compose lightning exec lnd lncli pendingchannels
{
"total_limbo_balance": "87269",
"pending_open_channels": [],
"pending_closing_channels": [],
"pending_force_closing_channels": [],
"waiting_close_channels": [
{
"channel": {
"remote_node_pub": "02ef503ab9f9fe3d78a83b4124c8ab9777fd08702b205034e6e8bd8d9d2cb84527",
"channel_point": "7d79bdfd386c4c2972ed298d1393b47e931b6be1679247a4fe997414592f5a6c:0",
"capacity": "100000",
"local_balance": "87269",
"remote_balance": "9508",
"local_chan_reserve_sat": "1000",
"remote_chan_reserve_sat": "1000",
"initiator": "INITIATOR_LOCAL",
"commitment_type": "ANCHORS",
"num_forwarding_packages": "0",
"chan_status_flags": "ChanStatusBorked|ChanStatusCommitBroadcasted|ChanStatusLocalCloseInitiator",
"private": false,
"memo": ""
},
"limbo_balance": "87269",
"commitments": {
"local_txid": "84f297da2ff444708aeacaf8702f2e76023a17462c803e7bee1419b64288fd1b",
"remote_txid": "501c9607c9e1ceceb7d7c362ba85431019c65df544f9a6ae0204616d2fa050fb",
"remote_pending_txid": "",
"local_commit_fee_sat": "2562",
"remote_commit_fee_sat": "2562",
"remote_pending_commit_fee_sat": "0"
},
"closing_txid": "84f297da2ff444708aeacaf8702f2e76023a17462c803e7bee1419b64288fd1b"
}
]

[microlancer]

You can bump the close fee. Also note, the mempool is slammed right now and on-chain TXs are costing 330 sats/vbyte. https://mempool.space/

[ziggie1984]

You are not charged twice, but I think umbrel does not account for RBF replacements (look at the tx which show the RBF history: https://mempool.space/tx/0b31240937c7b437babf9580f0b1cae44ce82c655a75eeba28845a048237ddbb). You can manually bump the fee of your closing tx via: lncli wallet bumpclosefee

[saubyk]

moving this issue to a discussion thread

[boa76]

Thanks all 🙏

[boa76]

I tried to bumpclosefee , here is the output , next step ?

umbrel@umbrel:~ $ ~/umbrel/scripts/app compose lightning exec lnd lncli wallet bumpclosefee
NAME:
lncli wallet bumpclosefee - Bumps the fee of a channel closing transaction.

USAGE:
lncli wallet bumpclosefee [command options] channel_point

DESCRIPTION:

This command allows the fee of a channel closing transaction to be
increased by using the child-pays-for-parent mechanism. It will instruct
the sweeper to sweep the anchor outputs of transactions in the set
of valid commitments for the specified channel at the requested fee
rate or confirmation target.

OPTIONS:
--conf_target value the number of blocks that the output should be swept on-chain within (default: 0)
--sat_per_vbyte value a manual fee expressed in sat/vbyte that should be used when sweeping the output (default: 0)

[guggero]

If there is a force close transaction in the mempool, then yes, chantools pullanchor can help. If the channel hasn't been force closed yet, then no. Do you have an SCB file?

[guggero]

Yes, pullanchor will work here (you see the output with 330 sats, that's the anchor you can use to create a CPFP, which is what the pullanchor command does).

I have recovered the node using that automatic backup option.

Ah, then that probably used the SCB to recover the channels. So you see the channels in lncli pendingchannels, either under waiting close or waiting force close? Then that's good, lnd will sweep the funds once you did the pullanchor.

[guggero]

Check the example in the doc I linked: https://github.com/lightninglabs/chantools/blob/master/doc/chantools_pullanchor.md

A sponsor input can be found by running lncli listunspent and choosing one that's large enough.

So something like that would work:

 chantools pullanchor --anchoraddr bc1qux0vcr3ya9v6007aqj9cyt892g4h7sfsg8y6nzaw23prtug02ucq03hzte --sponsorinput <txid:index> --changeaddr fromseed --feerate <desired_fee_rate_in_sat_per_vbyte_here>

No, it doesn't matter who initiated the channel. It only matters who initiated the force close which in this case must be the other party since you used SCB.

[guggero]

Ah, I just noticed now: "local_balance": "0", so it means you don't have any funds in that channel, only the remote party. So the anchor is not yours so you cannot pull it. Since there's no money in that channel I guess you can just ignore it.

[guggero]

Ah, you're right, the remote balance also shows 0 because for restored channels lnd doesn't know the actual balance... So I guess you have to check each channel if it has anchor outputs, try the pullanchor command on all of them and if you don't get the "no matching pubkeys found" error, then you do have a balance in that channel.

The other party can just bump the fees with lncli wallet bumpclosefee, assuming their lnd is in normal operation.