In the dusty and arid landscape of the digital wild west, ligjtning network nodes are like brave cowboys traversing vast plains in search of opportunities. These intrepid cowboys decide to open Lightning channels, but only when they expect to make a bunch of transactions. It's as if a cowboy decides to build a new trail between two towns only when anticipating a great influx of travelers and goods. https://c.tenor.com/2TRiFQ8nX2YAAAAC/tenor.gif Now, to measure the activity of these brave cowboys, we introduce something called 'ℓi'. Imagine it's like counting how many showdowns they plan to have in a week. Each cowboy has their own ℓi, which basically represents the average number of transactions they expect to send through each channel in the network. And just like in the wild west, where each duel is an unknown, the number of transactions is also a random variable drawn from a discrete distribution over integers. It's like trying to predict how many times a cowboy will draw his revolver in a week!

But wait, here comes the fun part! Bc yep, nothing is free. Just as cowboys have to pay for ammunition and supplies, these nodes have to face the costs associated with transactions. They can be like charging a toll to cross the river: either a fixed fee per head of cattle crossing or a percentage of the value of the cargo transported. https://c.tenor.com/McRnIcLqcEIAAAAd/tenor.gif Where the price of goods can fluctuate based on demand, these costs can be fixed per transaction or calculated as a percentage of the value transferred. It's as if each cowboy had to decide whether to pay a fixed sum for each showdown or a share of the loot won! So here we are, at the crossroads between the old west and the new digital world, where cowboys are nodes of a timechain network and showdowns become lightning-fast transactions. It's as if Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid sat down to calculate their expenses before facing off at the OK Corral, except instead of revolvers, they're handling digital wallets and transaction fees.

In summary, nodes are calculating their moves as if they were opening a new trail in the old west, only instead of dust and horses, they're dealing with bits and bytes in the wild world of bitcoin. So grab your cowboy hat and get ready to roam the cyberspace plains as we explore the fascinating universe of btc transactions!

Thanks for reading, sat! https://c.tenor.com/4qzf_cX6G6QAAAAC/tenor.gif