<blockquote>
  <p>Are the transactions private or public?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Mostly private. If you are not involved in a transaction (i.e. not a sender, receiver, or intermediary), you really won't know anything about the transaction. Transactions occur off chain so there is no permanent record of a transaction happening. All that outside observers will see are the channel opening and closing transactions.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>it can possible get hidden in a payment channel?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes, you can have a payment channel which no one else knows about, at least until it closes.. These could even exist today and it would not be obvious until the channel closes. And if a channel is closed cooperatively, it will look just like any other 2-of-2 multisig transaction. So even then it is not clear whether a transaction is a closing transaction for a payment channel.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-05T14:32:30.780Z
how does this compare to privcy coins like monero?
Patoshi パトシ
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-05T15:28:32.913Z
Privacy coins like Monero utilize cryptography to hide the data in a transaction which is broadcast publicly. However LN maintains privacy by simply not broadcasting the transactions in a channel to the rest of the world. It is certainly not as private, and there is no guarantee of your privacy when using LN.
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-05T05:58:40.123Z
2018-04-05T17:12:10.010Z
2018-04-05T17:12:10.010Z
Ava Chow
<p>If the lightning network is a off chain system. Are the transactions private or public? And does that mean once you send bitcoin to a lightning network address, it can possible get hidden in a payment channel? Or is that not possible?</p>

<lightning-network><privacy><off-chain>
If lightning network transactions are "off chain", can we still see the transaction history then?
Patoshi パトシ
# If lightning network transactions are "off chain", can we still see the transaction history then?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-05)

If the lightning network is a off chain system. Are the transactions private or public? And does that mean once you send bitcoin to a lightning network address, it can possible get hidden in a payment channel? Or is that not possible?

**Tags:** lightning-network, privacy, off-chain


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-04-05. Score: 2

> Are the transactions private or public?

Mostly private. If you are not involved in a transaction (i.e. not a sender, receiver, or intermediary), you really won't know anything about the transaction. Transactions occur off chain so there is no permanent record of a transaction happening. All that outside observers will see are the channel opening and closing transactions.

> it can possible get hidden in a payment channel?

Yes, you can have a payment channel which no one else knows about, at least until it closes.. These could even exist today and it would not be obvious until the channel closes. And if a channel is closed cooperatively, it will look just like any other 2-of-2 multisig transaction. So even then it is not clear whether a transaction is a closing transaction for a payment channel.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: how does this compare to privcy coins like monero?  
> **username_1**: Privacy coins like Monero utilize cryptography to hide the data in a transaction which is broadcast publicly. However LN maintains privacy by simply not broadcasting the transactions in a channel to the rest of the world. It is certainly not as private, and there is no guarantee of your privacy when using LN.  

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