I am a measure twice, cut once kind of guy, so I usually over-research before any decisions/purchases/etc. I researched bitcoin for months (probably 500 hours because I'm semi-retired) before my first purchase - but then fully committed and never looked back...other than wishing I had started in 2014 when I first heard about bitcoin.
I managed to still get bit as I was setting up my nostr:npub126ntw5mnermmj0znhjhgdk8lh2af72sm8qfzq48umdlnhaj9kuns3le9ll and nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm Hub. Wanted to post this in case someone else is walking the same path.
I got my Start9 ServerOne setup very easily...and boy do they make it easy. I then breezed through setting up Bitcoin Core, electrs, mempool...went ahead and also installed File Browser because I hope that allows me to use some capacity for backup of documents from our laptops. Will be interested if anything like a TimeCapsule type of backup exists since we have Macs.
Anyway, the issue(s) came with LND and AlbyHub (fyi - I installed these with the default configuration recommendations). I rate these as low-level, but it did cost real sats and resulted in a couple questions:
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1. Somewhere along the line, I was hoping to open a lightning channel and pick the suggested Start9 HQ node. I never seemed to hit that step...although somewhere along the line, I see an open tab for that node in my browser. I wonder if it got lost when I was going through the Alby Hub setup and I saw the button to migrate funds from my existing wallet tied to my getalby address.
The end result is that sats migrated between wallets, but a huge chunk went into the fees to open the channel. I only had about 36,000 sats in the wallet, and only around14,000 sats made it across to the new wallet! The rest went into channel fees - a lot considering I primarily use to zap or make very small, irregular purchases.
Through no selection process on my part, a channel was opened with Megalith LSP instead of me being prompted to pick a node...where I intended to select Start9 HQ.
Thoughts on this one? How did it default select a channel?
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2. After the Alby Hub setup, I now have 3 profiles showing up in my Alby Extension in Brave. A disconnect exists so that I need to use one Alby profile to get to my nostr profile that still retains my settings (like relays)...but I need to use the new Alby Hub profile to zap sats. I am hoping to reach out to Alby support to see if I can get this consolidated back to one profile without losing my nostr setting or my getalby address.
So I was researching your exact same setup and then I watched the BTC Sessions tutorial on how to set up an alby hub.
He does go through the issues you were talking about in point 1.
I ultimately decided against for now. I signed up for Primal Premium and can zap with my mobile but not on my PC(which is what I use 90% of the time).
If you watch this video it may help you out.
primal.net/btcsessions
I did scroll through that video beforehand, but I didn't watch the entire thing because he chose the Alby Hub in the Cloud option and I was specifically looking for any configurations/steps for Start9.
I'll go back and look again...especially if I am looking to add a 2nd channel.
