Subnostr

Thinking about running a lightning node but I have some questions.

I understand that to have inbound liquidity I can open a channel and send sats to the other side however this effectively means that whoever is on the other side of the channel has sats just sitting there locked up as inbound liquidity for me.

Assuming I am not a routing node why would they do this?

They have to lock sats that they can't spend through me since I am not routing. Would they not just close the channel to get their sats back?

And if they keep closing the channel how do I maintain having inbound liquidity?

Is the only option for reliable inbound liquidity to rent it from a LSP? It seems there is no incentive for a channel partner to offer this for free.

#bitcoin #lightning #asknostr

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Discussion

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴍʟᴇᴋᴜ 1y ago

they charge a fee for opening, i saw like 2000-3000 on the ones i recentely opened

if they close the channel find someone else to open with i think

also it may help to open both directions with them, then they get routing fees when you spend

phil 1y ago

If you just want to run a small node and not looking to do a lot of routing then you can just look at setting up a few small channels with other pleb nodes. If you build triangles (node A opens to node B, node B opens to node C and node C opens to node A) it means that you can maintain a balance of inbound and outbound liquidity.

The Nodestrich community is a good place to start and find people to open channels with:

https://amboss.space/community/6d41c0bd-6e39-40a2-a062-a809c2e8c2b5

Den Yellek 1y ago

Thanks for the link I will take a look.

Given my current tiny use of lightning there is probably no reason for me to set up a node but I am thinking of setting up the alby hub anyway just out of interest.

modulo 1y ago

Find a well-connected merchant that sells for #bitcoin over lightning something you like and regularly purchase, e.g. coffee, tea, beer, etc. Open a channel with them and fund with a few months worth of purchases, like €400. After a few purchases of coffee/beer/tea/whatever, you now have inbound liquidity back from the well-connected merchant.

Den Yellek 1y ago

Good advise.

Find partners who have an economic incentive to have an ongoing open chanel with you.