It’s certainly not free money as some may think— a good amount of work and dedication is definitely required— but a well-run lightning node can be insanely profitable in 2025 and beyond.
If you look back through some of my older notes you’ll find some hints (Search for #Nodelou🐈)
Fascinating. I love this concept. Open market. Provide computer value, support the network, get paid
Are you able to share revenue data somehow?
My issue initially is nowhere to setup the node physically
How does it look if you run via nostr:nprofile1qqsyv47lazt9h6ycp2fsw270khje5egjgsrdkrupjg27u796g7f5k0spzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgnwaehxw309ac82unsd3jhqct89ejhxtc5hlchw for example?
Yes, exactly! Literally anyone can spin up a node and join the network to participate in the future of finance.
I have shared some revenue hints at times if you look carefully
Also a node can definitely be run in the cloud, many nodes do run on AWS or Hetzner for example
I tried running a Lightning node to earn sats about a year ago, but gave up after a while. It grew too big and locked up too much of my bitcoin. I shut it down and recently started again. Now mainly for my own good node, and if I earn enough fees to cover costs, I’m happy.
I think it’s both fun and a way to contribute to decentralization.
I also have a small core Lightning node just for incoming payments from Ocean from my miners (used to heat the apartment).
Have you considered charging a fee to teach people how to do this? And an ongoing fee for help managing it going forward?
I will gladly help anyone who wants to spin up a node! That much is easy enough to teach/learn.
The actual liquidity and channel management is a whole other beast, and a constantly moving target! It took me a year or two at least to understand the basics before I was profitable, and I am still constantly learning / trying new strategies every day.
I have vaguely considered the possibility and would be interested to take on capital allocation and return dividends since I am maxed out as to the amount of sats I can personally dedicate in outbound liquidity. But it would have to be structured correctly (legally), and then there’s the tedious problem of custody of funds which I am definitely not comfortable with!
What kind of transaction volume to channel liquidity ratio are we talking about?
My node currently routes around 3,000-4,000 tx per day, which amounts to anywhere from100% to 400% of available outbound liquidity daily.
https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs9sfgkq8mzthl9xcmsgl4u0kjhra4clh58xa58jwghalr2vlkev7gfuz0wu
Revisiting this thread since it stuck in my mind. Does just making a node available to the network give you volume, or do you have to specifically tie into a known active transaction network or promote somehow for volume? Feel free to save typing and link me to where you’ve answered such basic questions before if you like. I’ve never explored the moving parts of lightening other than as a user, so you sparked my curiosity into something new to me.
Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you are able to get near friends and family. 🍗
Making the node available and opening channels you will certainly get some traffic and routing.
But that alone is not enough for it to be sustainable / profitable.
Lightning at the base from a noderunner’s perspective is a liquidity marketplace. Buy low, put that liquidity where it is needed, and sell high. It’s a bit of an art and learning curve to do this effectively. And a constantly moving target as well, since liquidity, volume, etc on the network as a whole are constantly shifting.
nostr:nprofile1qqsytyzt9rl7pewtjye0ngywjahd0u8u2lvrsaupa2wgpujkcsfvrdqpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wvh8xmmrd9skcq2ywaehxw309u6kk7r5xe4x5enfdf5ngcmpdgmxjcmjx3snvvmsw5exv6nzwecrwefkxecrv7nyva3kvcn2094kgvnzv35xzdfn09jzummwd9hkumu669l it’s caught my attention as well
An infrastructure play, with Bitcoin/sats, with yield, in a growing market, high barrier initially
You could see specialist funds popping up to add liquidity
I wonder how you could do it in a non-custodial manner for an investor?
Lots of questions
I’ve got Jesse from Amboss joining me next week on the podcast so keep an eye out for that
🙏🏻
Fantastic. I spent time talking with Jesse in Nashville, and his comments from our conversation actually lead to my question earlier. Jesse was talking about the need for transaction volume, and finding it to achieve a volume of yield on your staked coin. Anyone looking at this thread with intrigue; pile your filler questions to Jake so we get some good pleb how-to angles worked into his cast.
Awesome, will be tuning in! 🤙
Yes this is the big key, how to do it non-custodial? I’d love to be able to take on/manage more liquidity— I could easily offer a fairly guaranteed 5-10% yield and still cover costs plus earn a cut for ‘liquidity management.’ But I am not about to start holding custody of other people’s funds, and a lightning node in essence is a hot wallet— so not altogether without risk, especially as the value of liquidity under management grows. Can’t wait to hear what ideas nostr:nprofile1qqsrjxqeute0zwusetrjp9qeadt5aa7q686wsxr8lsjvg73uuh52yjqpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp064a45g might have to add to the convo
Nice. I’d like to hear from nostr:nprofile1qqsrjxqeute0zwusetrjp9qeadt5aa7q686wsxr8lsjvg73uuh52yjqpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp064a45g as well
Got Jesse joining the podcast next week so we can learn from this insights as well
A software that automatically manages based on your proprietary analysis or proprietary reports recommending management strategies could be a big thing for you.
In the same way that analysts sell information, “buy alerts” or something along those lines, you could sell to lightning channel operators
A subscription like substack
Or a private 1/1 coaching program
Even a weekly mentor call
Lots of ways to package it up
100% This seems like a business model that would be a lot of fun for people with capital they want to allocate to bitcoin but are scared by the "lack of yield"
nostr:nprofile1qqsz4uq7p44arw0mh83agv2h6ezep7e8mnau403g0p99svhp00hms7cpzdmhxue69uhk7enxvd5xz6tw9ec82c30qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wd9hxvme0lylj89 is working on a product called Rails that tries to solve this. I don’t know too much about the details but I’m sure nostr:nprofile1qqsrjxqeute0zwusetrjp9qeadt5aa7q686wsxr8lsjvg73uuh52yjqpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp064a45g would fill you in
