How much bitcoin would you need to have dedicated to channel liquidity if you wanted to run a profitable and useful lightning routing node?
Discussion
What do you mean by profitable? I've been running this node for 4 years. I don't try to do anything but run a node for my family. I don't sell channels either. I do use Lightning Terminal to auto balance fees for me. I don't do any management or babysitting any more. I haven't for the last 2 years. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Honestly, this is a question for nostr:nprofile1qqsf5wdlsd7gdrtpakxvu6jv0g8tjm67t0xqs2kk4lw4f9ktv99z87cpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszrnhwden5te0dehhxtnvdakz7qg7waehxw309ahx7um5wgkhqatz9emk2mrvdaexgetj9ehx2ap0nnex0x. Their whole business is running profitable nodes.
By profitable I do not mean running a business but just not losing sats by running it.
There are costs in opening and rebalancing channels and you would need to be routing a sufficient number of transactions to cover these costs.
But as you ended by saying "ain't no body got time for that" perhaps this is just a level of complexity I should not delve in to and I should just rely on a private channel to a LSP.
Opening channels and closing channels does have a cost association. Choosing good partners can help here.
I don't rebalance anymore. I find it easier or better to just juggle fees and to help liquidity move around. I do this with LITD now.
You can't be profitable just by routing. You need real businesses that supports the lightning payments.