<p>You can only send as much funds through a channel as belong to you in the channel. So, no Alice cannot send the full capacity of the channel to Bob twice, unless the whole capacity had been sent back meanwhile.</p>
<p>If you're sending only in one direction and anticipate making multiple payments, you should open a channel that is a multiple of the sent amount in the first place. If payments flow only in one direction, it may even be more efficient to just send on-chain, especially if you're sending large amounts like 1 ₿ every day.</p>
<p>Alternatively, there may in the future be a way to increase the capacity of a channel by &quot;splicing-in&quot; funds, but that's basically just a more efficient way of opening a new channel with a bigger capacity.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-26T13:10:55.750Z
2022-07-26T13:17:39.690Z
2022-07-26T13:17:39.690Z
Murch
<p>Let's say Alice wants to send Bob 1BTC. So, let's say Alice funded a channel with Bob of 1BTC+some minuscule amount of BTC for fees and let's say Alice transferred the whole channel capacity to Bob.</p>
<p>The next day Alice wants to send another 1BTC to Bob. Since, the channel capacity is 1BTC, if Alice wants to send another 1BTC, how would she send that 1BTC to Bob? <strong>Does she close that channel and open a new channel with Bob? Or is there any way to send BTC to Bob through that same channel?</strong></p>

<lightning-network><lightning-network-daemon><ln-channel-balance-management>
How would you send more than a channel's capacity?
Arjun Reddy
# How would you send more than a channel's capacity?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-07-23)

Let's say Alice wants to send Bob 1BTC. So, let's say Alice funded a channel with Bob of 1BTC+some minuscule amount of BTC for fees and let's say Alice transferred the whole channel capacity to Bob.

The next day Alice wants to send another 1BTC to Bob. Since, the channel capacity is 1BTC, if Alice wants to send another 1BTC, how would she send that 1BTC to Bob? **Does she close that channel and open a new channel with Bob? Or is there any way to send BTC to Bob through that same channel?**

**Tags:** lightning-network, lightning-network-daemon, ln-channel-balance-management


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-07-26. Score: 1

You can only send as much funds through a channel as belong to you in the channel. So, no Alice cannot send the full capacity of the channel to Bob twice, unless the whole capacity had been sent back meanwhile.

If you're sending only in one direction and anticipate making multiple payments, you should open a channel that is a multiple of the sent amount in the first place. If payments flow only in one direction, it may even be more efficient to just send on-chain, especially if you're sending large amounts like 1 ₿ every day.

Alternatively, there may in the future be a way to increase the capacity of a channel by "splicing-in" funds, but that's basically just a more efficient way of opening a new channel with a bigger capacity.


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