Ok so I set up a channel on Alby Hub October of last year. Folks were trying to zap me but I did not have that setup. So, I set it up, paid for the channel, and got some zaps. Anyhow, I run the hub on my laptop so eventually I get logged out of Alby Hub. I guess because it is in a laptop? In any case I forgot about it. Then went to open Alby Hub and now it says I need to set up a Channel. I already bought a channel, though. What is the deal, please? Thanks.

#asknostr nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm

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If you buy an incoming channel, you'll be obligated to 'use it or lose it" which is a pretty common condition for liquidity providers. It's pretty common to require you to use it at least once every 30 days.

Alternatively, if you open the channel yourself, you won't be obligated to anyone to use it. Because it'll be yours.

To open your own, you'll need to buy at least a 100k sats on-chain and transfer it to your Albyhub. You'll then have the option to open your own channel.

After you open the channel, you'll need to spend a little Bitcoin to make room to receive zaps. If you spend 1000 sats, you'll be able to receive a thousand zaps.

Or, buy another incoming channel and a kitten. Post photos of kitten to receive zaps. As long as you keep posting cute kitten pics and receiving zaps, your channel will stay open. Kitten pics is what really powers the lightning network.

oh so it’s like i have to pay a subscription to receive zaps and/or keep checking that albyhub is open & running in case of non-kitten affiliated zaps…not a good deal for me. pls tell me you are joking about the cat zaps. oy.

Every time I post a pic of my cats, I get zaps.

Humans and cats share 90% of homologous genes—> there is no other explanation for why people online like cat pics it must be deep i had to check b/c the internet cat thing is so bizarre

plus nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm i do not recall seeing ANY notice that if channel was not used in 30 days — and got shut off by the alby extension not running which i don’t get why it stops anyway at this point — that i’d have to buy another — which is pretty scammy to me. 👎

They get shutdown because it's their Bitcoin locked in the channel. They are effectively lending you a quantity of Bitcoin so you can receive zaps. They're a business. They need to make a profit. The fees for routing zaps helps to pay the bills.

As I said before, rather than using someone else's Bitcoin, buy your own and open your own channels. Your Bitcoin, your control. Someone else's Bitcoin, they're in control.