Definition
Multi-Path Payments (MPP) let a single Lightning payment be split into several smaller pieces, or "shards," that travel over different routes and are reassembled at the destination. MPP solves a common liquidity problem: a sender may hold enough total bitcoin across their channels to cover a payment, yet no individual channel has enough capacity on its own. By dividing the amount, the sender can use the combined capacity of many channels at once.
How splitting works
The sending node breaks the target amount into multiple HTLCs (Hashed Time-Locked Contracts), each carrying the same payment hash, and dispatches them along independent paths. The recipient waits until shards summing to the full invoice amount arrive, then releases the preimage to claim all of them together. If not enough shards arrive, the pending HTLCs simply time out and the funds return to the sender. Base MPP, introduced in LND v0.10, is the form of multi-part payment included in the official Lightning specification (BOLT).
MPP versus AMP
A related variant, Atomic Multi-Path Payments (AMP), uses a different cryptographic construction so that each shard carries a distinct hash, improving privacy and guaranteeing all-or-nothing settlement. Plain MPP reuses one hash across shards, which makes the pieces easier to correlate but keeps the protocol simpler. Both raise the effective payment ceiling of the network and improve reliability for larger transfers.
MPP pairs naturally with larger channels such as a Wumbo Channel, and underpins how modern wallets route around capacity limits. See also our entry on Lightning Service Provider.
In Simple Terms
Multi-Path Payments (MPP) let a single Lightning payment be split into several smaller pieces, or “shards,” that travel over different routes and are reassembled at…