Payment channels

Payment channels are generally used as a mechanism to increase the scalability of blockchains and enable users to transact without involving (i.e., publishing their transactions on) the blockchain, which: i) increases the load of the system, and ii) incurs gas costs for the user. Payment channels generally use a smart contract as an agreement between the two participants. In the Filecoin blockchain Payment Channels are realised by the paychActor.

You can find the full payment channels spec here.