<p>I think a naïve, manual approach would be to infer the implementation from the gossip information, as you suggested. In particular, there are various feature flags that are advertised in the <code>node_announcement</code> gossip message, marked with an <code>N</code> in the <code>context</code> column of the table in <a href="https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/09-features.md#bolt-9-assigned-feature-flags" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BOLT 9</a>.</p>
<p>Given a sufficiently recent understanding of which implementation supports which feature, and more importantly, where the implementations diverge in their support, and also assuming that most of the gossiping nodes run reasonably recent versions of their respective software, this might allow you to make an educated guess.</p>
<p>The obvious caveat of this approach is, of course, that once Lightning is done™ and we finally reach feature parity between all implementations (soon!), such distinctions will no longer be possible to be gleamed from gossip data.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-20T17:49:05.827Z
2022-10-20T17:49:05.827Z
arik
<p>Is there a way to find out what Lightning implementations power which proportion of the Lightning Network? I tried checking a number of websites with statistics about the Lightning Network including 1ml.com, Acinq.co, Amboss.space, Bitcoin Visuals, and Mempool.space, but I couldn't find the statistic anywhere.</p>
<p>This leaves me wondering:</p>
<ul>
<li>Is it possible to determine from gossip data what implementation a node runs?</li>
<li>Is there any way to find this information without running your own node, e.g. per a website that publishes it?</li>
</ul>

<lightning-network><statistics><implementation><ln-gossip>
How can I find out what proportion of the LN nodes are running specific implementations?
Murch
# How can I find out what proportion of the LN nodes are running specific implementations?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-20)

Is there a way to find out what Lightning implementations power which proportion of the Lightning Network? I tried checking a number of websites with statistics about the Lightning Network including 1ml.com, Acinq.co, Amboss.space, Bitcoin Visuals, and Mempool.space, but I couldn't find the statistic anywhere.

This leaves me wondering:

* Is it possible to determine from gossip data what implementation a node runs?
* Is there any way to find this information without running your own node, e.g. per a website that publishes it?

**Tags:** lightning-network, statistics, implementation, ln-gossip


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-10-20. Score: 2

I think a naïve, manual approach would be to infer the implementation from the gossip information, as you suggested. In particular, there are various feature flags that are advertised in the `node_announcement` gossip message, marked with an `N` in the `context` column of the table in [BOLT 9](https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/09-features.md#bolt-9-assigned-feature-flags).

Given a sufficiently recent understanding of which implementation supports which feature, and more importantly, where the implementations diverge in their support, and also assuming that most of the gossiping nodes run reasonably recent versions of their respective software, this might allow you to make an educated guess.

The obvious caveat of this approach is, of course, that once Lightning is done™ and we finally reach feature parity between all implementations (soon!), such distinctions will no longer be possible to be gleamed from gossip data.


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