> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://pegasys.gitbook.io/pegasys-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://pegasys.gitbook.io/pegasys-docs/future-research/sharding.md). # Sharding Various estimates suggest the lightning network can scale up to 1 million transactions per second across the entire network. To generate the maximum yield, our network must be centrally positioned in the lightning network to capture the maximum traffic and routing fee. With this, it is fair to assume that our network would need to scale up as demand for the network throughput increases. In the current network design, all transactions (on-chain and off-chain) must go through network consensus, which significantly limits the network throughput. One way to address this issue is for the network to operate in shards, where each shard is a sub-network of n ≥ 4 (single fault tolerant) Pegasys nodes controlling a lightning node. Each shard can independently reach a consensus and route transactions at the cost of decreased capital efficiency, increased fragmentation and overall linear decrease in the TVL safely controllable by the network stake. A suitable shard size can be found for an optimal balance between the different tradeoffs. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://pegasys.gitbook.io/pegasys-docs/future-research/sharding.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.