My Lightning node earns generational wealth by routing transactions 🥹 
Discussion
Amazing!!
How much bitcoin would you need to have dedicated to channel liquidity if you wanted to run a profitable and useful lightning routing node?
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.
?cid=9b38fe91otl5fxeufcbol1coj7la7eytjnna5i1ifye1piyz&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
Leave some sats for us too.
Satoshi power 💥
In good conscience I have to chime in on this post. It's awesome the revenue that Derek is making, but for anyone thinking about standing up a routing node, the majority of nodes won't be profitable. There are cost associated to open channels, rebalancing, and most of all, force closes.
Here are my routing stats for approximately 5 months. What it doesn't show is that I'm around 150,000 sats in the red. Running a lightning node, in my opinion, is a great education in Bitcoin and contribution to the resiliency of the Lightning network. But save for the really large nodes, many won't be profitable.
Take that for what it's worth. I'm my mind the sats that I've "lost" aren't a loss at all but the best education/experience I've had in the space.
Is there a video or detailed explanation on how to do this step by step? I mean set you the lighting node to route transactions. 😃
nostr:nprofile1qqspnzgrfett3asxcuj0gksje6z2zxzpvgd27uvz58m9vsuqh8zzw6cpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgjwaehxw309ac82unsd3jhqct89ejhxqg5waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t0rjj54p has some good videos on running Umbrel or StartOS on his YouTube.
Is it eating up that amount of money in hardware and electricity cost and time spent on maintenance (which has value, too), though?
That's a funny question 😀
About $3 a month according to Google. Hardware was $100.
nice. Any tips on how to set up one? What software to use, what kind of hardware, etc?
Use umbrel on raspberry with a 2TB USB SSD.
Is it too i/o intensive? can i use a NAS via NFS? Using NFS seems stabler than using external USB disks in raspberry pi.
Just the initial load of the Blockchain, it's about 600 GB. Later it's just ln gossip and about a block every 10 minutes 🌞
I could do the initial load in better hardware, then just transfer it to the NAS and configure the r-pi to point to it. might work... Is the full blockchain needed? can't i use the feature where bitcoind keeps only the last few blocks? (forgot the name of the feature)
yes that works, I've also copied the Blockchain around several times. Not sure about the "partial BC" feature, it's not recommended cause you can't verify completely.
It's stable with external power supply at the SSD
How many channels are you running?
About 30.
Awesome 👌
Do you use https://lightningnetwork.plus/ for finding peers? I do 😁
I did a couple years ago. I haven't used them in a while. It's a great tool though.
I got less but my routing number are much lower, my fee per routing is much higher. 
That kind of number formatting always boggles my mind. I have to think if it's 30, 30k or 30M
Anyway sir, good work on your sats earning node!
It's 30k
That's about my income, also. It's charity 😁
Huh, it's kinda less than tmi thought tbh
https://files.v0l.io/e3bb2a7e717baaf9044db77f7d39f87ed3bc985ac21dc294fc8cfde1eeed7a29.webp
Cool. On a per hour basis, I see that's almost as much as you've been zapped for making this comment.
What's your setup?
I ran an Umbrel for 2.5+ years and built my own custom one a year ago.
💯
How?
Lol Derek.... post the costs :D :D :D :D
Awesome 😊
That’s ‘the Bitcoin ’yield’ that everyone is looking for, actually.
Absolutely. I've said this before. It's not much, but you can earn fees for providing a service.
Nik Bhatia wrote about this years ago
The Lightning Network Reference Rate https://timevalueofbtc.medium.com/the-lightning-network-reference-rate-98e41a9dadfa
Genuine question: if I were to run a self-hosted lightning node for private channels for my family & myself on my desktop, what would happen if I periodically shut down the desktop overnight?
I’m looking into getting an umbrelOS/StartOS in the near future, but in the meantime to test it out, I’m curious to know the implications with running it on my desktop during the day & turning off the desktop overnight.
If you have poor uptime you want to choose good peers that are aware of your nodes habits and are okay with the downtime.
Your peers can always close or force close on you. Regular closes are fine. Force closes can lock up funds for a few weeks. Worst case scenario is your node is offline for multiple weeks during that force close window and does not attest to channel state in time and loses the funds in that channel.
But only if your peer lies to the Blockchain about the channel closing balance. Not many people have the skill to do this.
So I’m assuming (with limited knowledge in lightning channels) the downside to this is that when my peers regularly close the channel d/t excessive downtime(s), I’d have to pay the default fee required to open a new channel every single time?
Indeed that would be another cost to consider when a channel peer closes on you.
The best peers can be relationships you already have. They will be more likely to give you inbound liquidity and less likely to close on you without at least a message in advance.
But hell with on chain fees where they are the juice will almost certainly be worth the squeeze. With tooling where it is today too now is probably the best time ever to experiment with lightning.
Its not about the fees, its about providing liquidity and strengthening the network. Keep on rocking in the free world nostr:nprofile1qqsr7acdvhf6we9fch94qwhpy0nza36e3tgrtkpku25ppuu80f69kfqpr9mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt9uq3wamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwdehhxarj9e3xzmny9uq3zamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wwa5kuef03vj0dj I salute you
Impressive!