Which question do you want to trace?
Where could you start with a real question?
If a channel balance changes, look for a signed update rather than expecting a new block entry for that payment. The channel lesson follows that distinction and explains why channel liquidity and closing conditions matter.
How should you connect these guides?
Begin at the boundary between base-chain records and signed channel state. Funding establishes a Bitcoin output. Channel participants then exchange updates under a protocol that supplies settlement and enforcement paths. Closing returns the outcome to base-chain outputs. This boundary explains what moves off chain and what still depends on blocks.
The channel lesson follows balances without treating capacity as universally spendable liquidity. A payment needs value in the appropriate direction, and routed payments need suitable conditions along the route. A large headline capacity does not guarantee that a particular transfer can complete. The diagram deliberately separates funding, updates and settlement.
Follow related links to timelocks, multisig and confirmations when the channel’s enforcement details become unfamiliar. Those mechanisms explain why signatures, delays and monitoring matter. They also help distinguish a channel you control from an account whose provider manages the underlying keys and transactions on your behalf.
For a worked reading exercise, imagine a payment that changes the allocation inside an existing channel. Ask which signed state changes and whether a new transaction must appear in a block for that update. Then trace a closure: identify which output is spent and which new outputs become enforceable. Keeping these events separate gives you a usable model without pretending that the introductory drawing implements the whole channel protocol. Return to the base-chain transaction lessons whenever a channel explanation depends on an unfamiliar output or spending condition. The same validation principles anchor the more complex construction.
Keep the distinction between an explanatory model and an implementation visible. The introductory route omits many protocol details so you can understand the anchor, update and settlement relationship. The primary specifications supply those details when you need to examine a specific construction.
Where do the mechanisms come from?
Sources: Payment channel peer protocol; Payment channel transaction specification.