Lightning liquidity is going to be extremely valuable in the future when mempool fees are truly nutty.
One of the very few honest ways to earn yield on #bitcoin is to run a lightning router, although it comes with risk!
Discussion
Finally have my first reliable channel up. Onward from here.
And now I have received my first zap. Thank you 🙏
Thanks for the zap nostr:npub1j3de6gaj70jdr9muf0nq29wwps3wqxdqz3g7e5e67yyquhn6grkscw27tz
For sure! Welcome aboard ⚡🤙
Any chance you’ve got a good beginners guide to follow that you might share with a beginner (me)? 😊
Absolute easiest way to get started is through Umbrel: http://getumbrel.com
Are you looking to stand up a node or just want to get a wallet set up?
Specifically the intricacies of running a lightning node! I’m currently operating a full Bitcoin node on an RPi using Start9. I know they have packages for running a lightning node, but I know next to nothing on what risks come with operating a node and doing channel management. Hopefully it’s just a as easy as installing the package?
Umbrel makes it pretty much that simple, but it's a little harder to grasp what exactly is going on. I started with Umbrel, started over again with cli, and ended up going back to Umbrel with a better understanding of the architecture and tradeoffs.
I found it to be pretty complex when initially just trying to build through cli. You need to pick a lightning implementation and identify which packages will be necessary to complete it, which GUI front ends work and which don't for each implementation, find a peer to bootstrap and get your node visible, find someone who will turn up a channel with you -- for me it was a lot. Worthwhile to learn though, imo.
I opted for Core Lightning (CLN) as it apparently is much more resource-optimized than others, but I'm sure there are other reasons to use the different implementations.
Here's what helped me most for basics and for CLN specifically:
Thank you for the comprehensive reply! I’ll have to look into CLN, I’d like to ideally have it be as optimized as possible. Do you know offhand if you can operate a full Bitcoin node & lightning node on the same 8GB RPi? Not sure if I’ll need a separate board or just another SSD.
Thanks for the zap! Once the Bitcoin node is fully synced I don't think you'd have as much of a RAM concern. And lightning wouldn't add much to the storage requirement. If you have 1TB you should be good
Any time my friend! 💜⚡️ Awesome, glad to hear that. Bitcoin node has been synced for a while and I should have the storage space. I’ve got CLN installing now, I’ll play around with it and report back 🤟
..what kinda risk we talking?
The wallet is hot so you can get hacked. You could also make a mistake and lose coins, which is easy because it's not the easiest to use
Not profitable in my experience either 😆