Oddbean

I honestly agree with this take. I have a lightning node running, and its been running empty for years. The barrier of channel management and all the different setup is enough to stop me from using something I'm intrigued by, but don't currently need. If it was like unboxing an IPhone I, and i think many others, would have it all setup and be using it much more. I'm looking forward to the day.

You don't need to be a node aficionado w/ many channels. Just open one single big channel to a well connected node and you're good to go. Top up when your channel balance is low just like you need to make sure there's some money in your physical wallet.

Well yea that's correct, you'd ideally need enough BTC as big as your channel size, and that's monetary wall/requirement. I already keep some BTC and I work in tandem w/ a CEX to open channels and move the lightning sats back to my CEX to retrieve the amount to HODL personally, and I understand that's not something everybody do/prefer. And I receive payment in lighting and sell things, not sure I'd go through all of it just as a hobby w/o that given the requirement of learning all that and channel opening fees (although they're much cheaper than I thought they'd be in right mempool environment).

If you're thinking about mobile/remote nodes I'd like to warn you that I haven't experienced necessary levels of stability w/ them. Once I got my Mutiny wallet LN channel had force closed, and twice I had my Zeus on mobile device node channels force closed during getting a payment. IDK about Mutiny a lot but Zeus mobile light LN node uses a thing called neutrino mode and I found that can leave you vulnerable to forced channel closures if/when there's bad wireless latency during receiving a payment. My best guess is that the mobile wireless latency rising from wifi connection and neutrino mode is causing channels to appear down momentarily or something, which's causing force closures when someone tries to initiate payment to you. I've found a wired connection and a 7/24 online full LN node (no neutrino mode, light wallet) on a raspberry pi to be much less annoying and much more stable in terms of maintaining stable LN channels w/o force closures. Personally I used BTCPay Server's LN node functionality. to have access to underlying OS while still having an easy to setup LN node. Also Zeus LSP (lightning service provider) has expensive channel opening fees vs what you can open a channel to a known big node yourself, and worse routing fees than you can find via opening a channel yourself. I opened a channel to Kraken's node and it's nearly free to send/receive for me now.

Nice. I have my raspiblitz node running, I'll check out BTC pay server. Then just use whichever mobile wallet to connect back to my node. Good to know about Zeus channel cost. Definitely prefer to have complete control over everything I can so I'll avoid that

raspiblitz node should be fine and enough I think. I used BTCPay server just because I don't enjoy letting the node prevent me from using the rest of the device, given the low system resource use (or rpi5). Solutions like rasppblitz come w/ their own image and since they're not a traditional os, they prevent you from running other stuff on device, using for other things. I've used Amboss Space to trial and error where to open channels to. Tested opening channels to big players list. ACINQ has higher incoming fees, 1ML.com node ALPHA is a node only to confirm node ownership, doesn't route shit, CoinGate has good fees but can't route shit (in my experience). Has been a trial and error experience. Consider your use cases and check where the nodes are connected to and their routing fees tab on Amboss Space. You'd think there would be guides about where to open a channel to, I haven't encountered personally... https://m.primal.net/JpGq.png https://amboss.space/ https://m.primal.net/JpGx.png

Hahaha it gets involved quick, yes. Just open a channel to Kraken if you're in USA and your use cases are USA based to skip the "which channel?" part if you wish. Wallet of Satoshi channel might be more interconnected w/ European nodes and use cases, I guess. While it's true that opening one single channel to a big player is causing centralization in the LN system and it's not ideal use, and ideally you'd want to open many channels to less centralized nodes to use it closer to the initial spirit and ethos of Lightning Network philosophy, in reality it can get more frustrating when you open a single channel to a low key node/player in the network and get frustrated when you find yourself you're unable to route payments ¯\(ツ)/¯ Lightning is very fascinating in idea that it's completely removing centralized ledger and making it more decentralized in some ways. Having to rely on big nodes/players is a hurdle at this point I can only hope we'll overcome via protocol improvements/upgrades in the future.

Yeah, you know I looked into it again and just thought, when I need it I'll use custodial. Not worth it until the UX is easier because right now the barrier to entry is too high for the normal person that it won't catch on.

That's right. I sell things using LN and I was fed up w/ Alby's %0.24 or something cut and constant nagging that I go over their limits. Worth the hassle if you're merchant perhaps, not so much as a user, perhaps, when you have convenient custodial services. It's just they need to package things in much more convenient ways. Lately Alby released their "Alby Hub", it looks a bit convenient but I'm not sure if it's recommending you channels and stuff. It has versions of hosted by Alby or self. https://guides.getalby.com/user-guide/v/alby-account-and-browser-extension/alby-hub/getting-started