Does it genuinely make sense to run my own Lightning node, considering we've now got such excellent non-custodial wallets?

Are there any benefits?

#asknostr

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I run my own node (I also use the new Zeus LSP mobile wallet ; its incredible). here is what I'd say:

1. You learn a lot about how lightning works. Opening channels, finding peers, tweaking fees...I find it awesome to know how things work under the hood.

2. You learn how to run your own node and more importantly you CAN run your own, in the case that the LSP model becomes too centralized and people need to route around that captured part of the network (what if ACINQ, Olympus and Wallet of Satoshi collude to drive up fees or will only whitelist certain transcation to route?).

3. You should face less fees due to there being less middle-men between you and spending/receiving your corn.

4. A node being online all the time is easier for sending / receiving payments as you are not reliant on the LSP to complete that process for you. If that LSP is down, you are screwed but if you have a node with 30 channels and a few channels are offline, your payments can still make it out/in from your other peers.

5. potential privacy concerns, as the LSP is gonna be able to see a lot of your transaction graph. using non-kyc and/or mixed utxos to open channels with LSP is recommended if privacy is important to you.

You don't want to find yourself suddenly at the whim of a few elite class who decide your bitcoin is one of 42M bitcoin just because you thought your wallet provider was going to have the same idea about what bitcoin is as you forever.

Run a node, don't let anyone speak for you.

Roger 🫡

It's useful because it's always online, so you can self host a Lightning address for example. Otherwise non custodial mobile wallets are good enough, probably even better for simple send/receive

Do you use voltage to get a lightning address? I don’t own a domain.

No, I bought a domain and host Satdress on a VPS (lnaddress.com) to use a Lightning address fully self controlled. Domains are cheap (like $10/year) but its some work to set everything up.