Nostr Web Client

After 1.5 years, I shutdown my LN. I feel sad, humbled, like I let bitcoin down.

In short, my time was becoming limited and I was unable to keep up with the maintenance.

I spent 6 hours yesterday trying to understand why LNbITS, running on a remote machine, all of sudden failed to communicate with LND, running locally.

I tried everything….new certs, new macaroons, IP checks, updates, restarts.

After 6 hours, I gave up. LNBITS was the (only) way I could use my node for payments on the go. And if I’m not doing that, it’s not worth it to me. I don’t like tails.

It’s a long story. If I ever decide to run another node, it will be a core lightning node.

I still run my bitcoin nodes at home and the office. Those are easy in comparison.

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Discussion

corndalorian 11mo ago

Your time is valuable. I ran one for a little over a year and shut it down after that due largely to the time commitment. Now I use a mix of self custodial “node in phone” lightning wallets and custodial wallets as needed. Much less time involved and keeps the risk of custodial rug pull minimal.

Bryan 11mo ago

Which do you prefer? Zeus? Blixt? Strike? Aqua?

corndalorian 11mo ago

I primarily use Breez for self custodial lightning. I can give you a more detailed answer as to why if you want, but after trying multiple of the node in phone wallets it has just worked best for what I need, and I’ve been using it for like 3 years now witch minimal issues. I’ve also been trying out Aqua and I’m liking it. The thing to keep in mind about Aqua is that it stores your “layer 2” balance as Liquid. So it can make and receive Lightning payments, but it automatically swaps them in and out of liquid behind the scenes. Seems to work ok, but it’s good to know that and it does result in a little bit higher LN due to the swaps.

corndalorian 11mo ago

*with

corndalorian 11mo ago

As for custodial wallets, I use Strike more just for buying bitcoin but it has a good wallet interface in their app. Primal is my main custodial wallet right now since it integrates so tightly with nostr, and it’s backed by Strike so I feel as comfortable using it as I would using the Strike app.

nikotsla 11mo ago

Sad to see you go, but I totally understand you.

Bryan 11mo ago

I’m sad too. I’m not leaving bitcoin. A world without bitcoin is bleak.

theGig 11mo ago

It's true, I manage a lightning node and it does take up a lot of time. I love lnbits too, and I can just see this happening to me to. I always fear if I upgrade it might not work anymore lol. Thankfully better self hosting options are coming with breez, Zeus, and Alby hub.

Jeff 11mo ago

There is no other “arena” where average folks try to run personal global payment rails from their horse and buggy on the Oregon Trail 😀

You are a pioneer (alpha tester PAYING money) that should be praised for helping devs and everyone else see the truth vs the hype. If shit needs to be 10x better for adoption, then you are the proof of work revealing it’s not yet.

And yes I might be saying this cause I dragged all my buddies into Alpha land too 😂! Just keep pressing forward where you can and and in 10 years it’ll just be a funny story about how you we’re burning generational wealth on a RaspPi on the weekends instead of working a side hustle and having twice as many sats now ha…

freecritter 11mo ago

😅

freecritter 11mo ago

You didn’t let anyone one down. If you can write a long form post talking about the specifics of where you had friction it would be helpful for devs. That’s a stronger attempt than most will probably give to self custodial lightning. Memorializing your experience especially the difficult aspects will only make your efforts more worthwhile.

Logen 11mo ago

On the LNbits telegram they announced they are about to release v1.0

It’s been in beta for 5 years