# Chain Activity
Initially, our node doesn't have any channels and hence has no data to monitor
for on-chain. When a channel is opened with a peer, the ChannelManager creates
a ChannelMonitor and passes it to the ChainMonitor to watch.
At this point, you need to feed LDK any chain data of interest so that it can
respond accordingly. It supports receiving either full blocks or pre-filtered
blocks using the chain::Listen interface. While block data can sourced from
anywhere, it is your responsibility to call the block_connected and
block_disconnected methods on ChannelManager and ChainMonitor. This allows
them to update channel state and respond to on-chain events, respectively.
LDK comes with a lightning-block-sync utility that handles polling a block
source for the best chain tip, detecting chain forks, and notifying listeners
when blocks are connected and disconnected. It can be configured to:
- Poll a custom
BlockSource - Notify
ChannelManagerandChainMonitorof block events
It is your choice as to whether you use this utility or your own to feed the
required chain data to LDK. If you choose to use it, you will need to implement
the BlockSource interface or use one of the samples that it provides.
Note
Currently, lightning-block-sync is only available in Rust.