Safe Usage

Important security notes for usage

Always keep in mind: Despite the fact that Alderaan is a lot more mature and reliable than Red Eyes, it is still a beta release. Please make sure to follow the below security notes and system requirements to avoid increasing the risk of losing funds. Note that the loss of tokens could happen even if you follow these guidelines.

  • Ethereum node in sync and running reliably: Ensure that layer 1 works reliably. This means that you have to have an Ethereum node, either geth or parity, that is synced and working reliably. If there are any problems or bugs on the client then Raiden can not work reliably.

  • Ethereum client always online: Make sure that your Ethereum client is always online during operation of a Raiden node. As stated above, you can safely go offline if channel monitoring is enabled, but in order to use the Raiden nodes for doing transfers you have to have an online and synced Ethereum node, too. We recommend running it inside a monitor which will restart it if, for some reason, it crashes.

  • Ethereum Client can not be changed: Swapping the Ethereum client while transactions are not mined is considered unsafe. We recommend avoiding switching Ethereum clients once the Raiden node is running.

  • Raiden online for operations: Currently all nodes participating in a transfer need to be online in order for a transfer to be carried out. Hence, make sure that your Raiden node is always working, your network connection is stable and that the Raiden node is always online. As mentioned above, if a node has monitoring enabled it is safe to shut it down, but it will not be able to receive, mediate or send transfers while offline.

  • Unique account for Raiden: Raiden requires you to have a specific Ethereum account solely dedicated to Raiden. Creating any manual transaction with the Ethereum account that Raiden uses, while the Raiden client is running, can result in undefined behaviour. It is, however, safe to do manual transactions with the account if Raiden is not running.

  • Raiden account has sufficient ETH: Raiden will try to warn you if there is not enough ETH in your Raiden account in order to maintain your current open channels and allow them to go through their entire cycle. However, it is your job to refill your account with ETH and to make sure it is filled sufficiently once warned.

  • Raiden account has sufficient UserDeposit: If you are using pathfinding or monitoring service, you will pay for using these with IOUs through the UserDeposit smart contract. This deposit is done in RDN and if the user deposit does not have a sufficient balance, the Raiden services will not kick in, since they are not getting paid.

  • Do not transfer too small amounts for mediated transfers: Currently the Raiden client cancels payments that would require more than 20% of the transferred amount in fee costs. This means that the transferred amount has to be big enough, so that the fees do not surpass 20% of the transferred amount. This results in the following minimum amounts for the token networks when mediation is used:

    • DAI: Min 0.00001 DAI

    • WETH: Min Min 0.0000001 WETH

  • Persistency of local DB: Your local state database is located at ~/.raiden. This data should not be deleted by the user or tampered with in any way. Frequent backups are recommended. Deleting this directory can result in a loss of funds.

  • Never expose the Raiden REST API to the public: For Raiden’s operation, the client needs to be able to sign transactions at any point in time. Therefore you should never expose the Raiden Rest API to the public. Be very careful when changing the –rpc and –rpccorsdomain values.

  • Be patient: Do not mash buttons in the webUI and do not shut down the client while on-chain transactions are on the fly and have not yet been confirmed.

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