I had the same concerns as you. I didn't want to pay monthly either, not because of having to pay, but because that not self custody if they are hosting it for you.

Yes hosting it yourself it would have to be online 24/7. Its not for everyone you are correct. But its an ideal that I subscribe to. In order to do all these projects with comfort, ease and setup for success, you could of need a mancave (nostr cave) where you can shut out everyone else when working on these important things.

ok back to it being up 24.7. ideally you would hos it on a separate machine with a PLATFORM setup like StartOS (Start9) which runs Bitcoin Core, Lightning, your own nostr relay, simplex server, your own cloud and many other things you could find useful to disconnect yourself from trusted third parties. This operating system is what you would also install AlbyHub onto which would integrate seamlessly with your Lightning Node.

Since getting this up and running finally about a month ago, I opened 3 channels at 2M sats each. None of them have yet been closed, probably because they are being used in both directions multiple times a day. I havent needed to manage any yet, and ive made zaps of 200,000 sats a few times, and typically sats of 1000 sats a few times a day. I also receive some small change inbound..

If you open channel with me for whatever amount, I will open one with you back for at-least double the amount if not more, if that helps?

I am happy to spend the time and effort to help you get this going.

In the end, you will have less sats skimmed off of what you receive her and not dependent on third party nodes and wallets.

I mean this is what Bitcoin, Lightning and nostr is supposed to be all about :)

Im still learning myself the differences between forced closed channels and cooperatively closed channels as from previous obvservartions they seem to happen with out my intervention when they did happen in the past during my learning process. The worst thing that happened was the channel sats I had put up as outbound liquidity were returned to me in an onchain transaction back the on chain wallet. So the most risk happening here would the cost of on chain transactions fees, which are not very high anyway.

There are more serious risks with non-reputable nodes who could try to cheat the system, but I try to connect to somewhat reputable nodes. Otherwise if youre connecting willy nilly to just any node, it may be wise to look into watchtowers which are supposed to protect against malicious channel closing in case your node goes offline for too long and the other party force closes a balance that is not correct.

I dont have a PHD in this yet, but I do have a graps of these fundamentals enough to help you get started without any serious risks.

In my opinion the rewards outweigh the risks.

And the education and experience is priceless.

No hate. Only love. Peace.

Pura Vida.