Oddbean new post about login | logout I haven't figured out how to do lightning with self-custody BTC yet. I am willing to have a custodial lightning wallet - as long as I can limit the BTC at risk and keep the BTC myself. Actually running a lightning node myself seems to have requirements that are not worth the small amount of BTC at risk. Is it possible to have a self-custody wallet with someone else's node? How does the node operator get paid? I read up a bit more each week.
I don't recommend storing much BTC in lightning. The main reason for this is that lightning does not support hardware wallets yet, so essentially all lightning wallets are "hot wallets". If we don't keep large amounts on lightning, I don't see the need for self custody although I do have that setup through Start9, I still prefer using Wallet of Satoshi for purchasing street food from non english speaking merchants in other countries. Any amount of BTC that you would feel sorrow over losing should be held on chain in cold storage. The rest is for fun and games and networking 😃 I recommend trying all common lightning implementations available and see what you like the best and what makes the most sense for you.
Try start9 good training wheels. research as you go and only turn on what you understand.
Get Phoenix wallet and load it with a solid sum of sats to pay for opening of a channel. Try to spend about half the sats before loading it with more sats.
Spend spend spend lol! 🤣
Spend or swap back on-chain. But honestly, LN is for spending.
small amounts, I agree. it ends up not being worth it if you self custody for a chump change hot wallet ie: LN. Last thing I want is to get stuck for a failed transaction at a street food vendor in El Salvador or Mexico which is were im going in 2 weeks. I use Phonix and Zeus, but will not be going on vacation without a Wallet of Satoshi instance on my device thats for sure!
Multiple LN and on-chain wallets for the win. Keeping a small amount (1-5%) of my stack on me at all times.
Likewise! The more tools you are equipped with, the better! Except more like 0.01% to 0.0 5% here....
Do you have to open a channel to use lightning network?
If you want to have your #sats in your own custody, you have to open a channel - a smart contract on #Bitcoin main chain. There are fully custodial wallets where you don't have to open any channels like Wallet of Satoshi but in that case, you don't own your #sats, the wallet provider does hold it in their channel. It's OK for small amounts like less than a million sats or something, I guess. Most people use them here for zapping.
I think a fully custodial wallet is what I want. Where I can transfer a small amount of BTC (which is self-custody) for zapping and receiving zaps. How does the wallet provider make money? Do they take a percentage?
They take small fees from the transactions and some sell other services like swapping between on-chain and LN. We are so early, many operators are first building the solutions and care about earnings later.