Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line/13_6_Closing_a_Channel.md

13.6: Closing a Channel

ℹ️ NOTE: This is a draft in progress, so that I can get some feedback from early reviewers. It is not yet ready for learning.

In this chapter you'll be able to close a channel and learn what it means and how to do it using lightning-cli close command-line interface. The close RPC command attempts to close the channel cooperatively with the peer, or unilaterally after unilateraltimeout argument expires measured in seconds and the output will be sent to the address controlled by your c-lightning wallet if you don't specify one.

Close a channel means you and your counterparty will send their agreed-upon channel balance to the blockchain whereby you must pay transaction fees and must wait for the transaction to be mined.

Listing your channels.

You can use the lightning-cli listfunds command to see your channels. This RPC command displays all funds available, either in unspent outputs (UTXOs) in the internal wallet or funds locked in currently open channels.

c$ lightning-cli --network=testnet listfunds
{
   "outputs": [
      {
         "txid": "9843c037f54a4660b297a9f2454e11d26d8659f084a284a5740bb15cb1d97aa6",
         "output": 0,
         "value": 19238,
         "amount_msat": "19238000msat",
         "scriptpubkey": "0014aa572371f29310cd677d039cdcd054156c1a9545",
         "address": "tb1q4ftjxu0jjvgv6emaqwwde5z5z4kp49299gmdpd",
         "status": "confirmed",
         "blockheight": 1780768,
         "reserved": false
      }
   ],
   "channels": [
      {
         "peer_id": "0302d48972ba7eef8b40696102ad114090fd4c146e381f18c7932a2a1d73566f84",
         "connected": false,
         "state": "CHANNELD_NORMAL",
         "short_channel_id": "1780768x12x1",
         "channel_sat": 180000,
         "our_amount_msat": "180000000msat",
         "channel_total_sat": 280000,
         "amount_msat": "280000000msat",
         "funding_txid": "9843c037f54a4660b297a9f2454e11d26d8659f084a284a5740bb15cb1d97aa6",
         "funding_output": 1
      }
   ]
}

Closing a channel

You should use lightning-cli close command to close the channel. This RPC command attempts to close the channel cooperatively with the peer, or unilaterally after unilateraltimeout expires, and the to-local output will be sent to the address specified in destination.