Oddbean

I wish this was an easy question to answer, but lightning is still young enough where it isn't. the answer is maybe*. Lightning network supports routing, similar to how the internet works you send a payment and your lightning node will try and find an optimal path to get from you to the recipient of the money. If there is a path, for example: you -> third party -> recipient the money will take that path, and the third party can ask for a fee to route the payment through. There can be multiple third parties: e.g.: you -> third part 1 -> third party 2 -> third party 3 -> recipient. If there is a path, generally, you can send a payment without having to worry about opening a channel (which is great, for example for things like nostr zaps), but if there isn't you're out of luck and you have to open a channel to either the recipient himself or a big node that both you and the recipient have a channel with, so that it acts as a relay. There is one more occasion in which the payment will not go through if you're directly connected to the recipient and that's if you the fees charged by the third parties along the way are higher than your wallet's configured limits. Does that make sense?