Oddbean

Just bought some hardware so I can run a node. Still don't understand very well how to set it up, but I'll get there I suppose. Would love it if you can recommend any resources. I've read lots, but there's lots out there so it's not easy to find what's clear and helpful. Any thoughts on breez wallet?

You can join @The Nodestrich ♾️ group and learn about different node setups. We’ve been helping people get started for a year and a half. I’m personally not a Breez user, I never had a great experience with it.

Breez seems promising for a plug and play, ordinary person's lightning wallet, but it's still in beta so I haven't used it much. Everyone seems to like Phoenix, so I thought of giving that a go... Still, I want to be able to suggest something to people who aren't interested in learning about funding channels and such. Breez is the only promising self custodial solution that I've found so far...

If you want self custody, learning how channels work comes with the territory. I haven’t used Breez in a while (wild that it’s still in beta!), but if I remember correctly, it charges the user a setup fee to open a channel when receiving an initial payment. I think they do their best to hide the channel management from the user, but some of it is unavoidable, and users will have questions about why they’re being charged a fee up front to receive via Lightning vs. on-chain where fees are only calculated when sending a transaction. It’s an important distinction because custodial Lightning wallets have spoiled users into thinking this process is free and works like Venmo.

Agreed, and most likely the average user will opt for a custodial solution over something like breez. I've read about the possibility of using Litecoin and atomic swaps as a virtually feeless way to onboard onto lightning, which could help someday... Personally, I'm willing to do the work and put up the capital to use it, but to get mass adoption I'm sure that things will need to be easier. That said. In 1995 Linux on the desktop seemed like a pipe dream. Now everyone uses Linux, on their smartphones. Sure, it's Google... But if that can happen, then lightning can happen for the average dummy too.

Yes, we’ll get there and we won’t need altcoins to make it work. If someone just wants to play around with sending and receiving Lightning payments they can use Coinos.io. If they want a Lightning bank (and they can access it where they live), I send them to Strike.me. I think Breez has a place in the mix, but I’m currently more interested in things like Alby Hub which is more of a technical hurdle to get started using, but gives you much more control.

I’m a Zeus user, because it’s the best app to connect with the nodes I run. It also does give you the option to run a mobile node and even a way to receive payments when offline with a Lightning address.

Yes, definitely compare Start9 and Umbrel, and if you have your own hardware just make sure it meets the specs for what you want to run. You can also install @Alby Hub on a lot of different devices, with or without an existing node so definitely check them out.