Random idea

Is there a feasible way to structure it so that

Someone could lock up a UTXO on the lightning network without being the node runner?

I haven’t thought this through at all, but if there were some smart contract that could allow someone to enhance the liquidity on that network and earn fees without spinning up their own node, that would be interesting

It’d be a form of secured credit I guess

I guess the simplest way to do this would be ecash issuance

Because there’s really no way to do this trust minimized, you’d always be at risk that the node failed with force closes etc. you’re always trusting the node operator.