Miners get bitcoin when they support the network finding a block. This require energy and equipment, which has a cost. For cover this cost they must sell (a fraction) the bitcoins obtainded.
This tell us that miners are one of the main actor who keep "the price down". With the halving, they will have less bitxcoin to sell for pushing down the price
is possible.
However, for tecnhology reasons, from your point of view, your payment will be towards the wallet of thr client software, and you have to trust it that it will forward your zap with a second, distinct, payment
So, is it already abbandoned?
Your node will act as an active filter . Only valid transaction will pass from you
Also, you are trusting none than yourself
this is a intersting scenario for an attack of the network.
Assuming some big actors (financial institution and governament of the West, in this case) decide to hard fork #Bitcoin in BetterBTC, will be initially for a blockchain where allow only transaction compliant with money laundering law. That will require to have miners on their side. Miners care about profit, and illegal transactions on BTC will probably have higher than normal fee for counterattack BetterBTC for keep miners on their side.
Western institutions will not propose immmediatly Proof of Stake changes because thats will push away Miners (they strenghts is the hardware, which doesn't matter in Proof of Stake)
Proof of Stake will also decrease network security, since most of actors know that with enough founds, you can control the network
For Western instituion there is also a bet to make: if they move large capital of BetterBTC, and BetterBTC will be less secure than #Bitcoin, they will risk to lose everything. Remember that BetterBTC will still be a cryptocurrency which can be attacked from bad actors
Other nations not aligned with the West might also decide to ignore BetterBTC and still use BTC
Of course, this is just my opinion of what might happen
Phoenix and Breez wallet
Its a solution, with some drawbacks: your wallet will be less portable.
About Start9 and Umbrel, i don't have enough information for give a valuable opinion. I will suggest to use the one who provide more documentation and troubleshooting knowledge
My only advise is to try to keep your node always online and to check if you can allocate the storage needed for the #Bitcoin blockchain.
Take that as my personal point of view and not the absolute truth:
As liquidity shrink and demand increase the value of #Bitcoin in fiat terms will reach a point where these entities will have great benefit for use it or sell it. If you hold something that increase forever in value, your greed will kick in at some point for use it and benefit
For this to be possible, we must continue to build usefull and meaningful service on #Bitcoin
Phoenix is a lightning node, however is restricted by the developers to connect only with the ACINQ node.
Its the most free lightning wallet for smartphone right now, but some of the services its offer are not "trustless" yet ( for receive new channels towards you, you must trust the developers for example)
Phoenix wallet is the only which i know that keep your private key
They will go the exact moment the cost of writing on the blockchain will surpass the revenue from such activity. We just have to wait
What you say is true, but for most of the smartphone applications wallet (some exception for Breez and Phoenix). If you run your own #LightningNetwork node, you will be in control of all your keys.
Of course, not everyone want or have the knowledge for run a full node (project like #Umbrel are born for make it easier)
The truth is, we are still early for a consumer grade lightning wallet, but we are in the right path.
#WalletOfSatosh and #Alby, albeit custodial wallet, helped the grow of the network. What will matter in the future is have te choice from custodial and non-custodial wallet
What you suggest is noble and right.
However, we must keep in mind that for nom-technical users, there is no really difference from open and closed sources: they still have to trust to a group of developers or companies
Teaching the very core of open sources should be a must, since at least allow the users to understand and choose where put their trust, but for a real onboarding on free platfrom, we have to provide a better and simplier product than the closed ones (see #nostr on some apps who require 2 taps after the install for use it, where other social require email, password, verification link)
There are two kind of channel closure: cooperative and forced.
cooperative closure is the standard way of close a channel: one node initiate the closure and the other one "agree" to close the channel. Both node must be online for this
Forced closure is the "emergency shutdow". Both nodes keep a special transaction with the latest channel state (=i own X sats and you own Y sats if we close now). Only one node is necessary for this procedure and allow to close the channel, but:
- who initiate this closure pay higher than normal fee
- The sats of the closed channel are blocked for some days (=cannot be spend)
A malicious node can keep previous state of the channel for initiate a force closure where it can receive more than what own (=stealing for you), however, if your node is online (or a watchtower who is protecting you) while the channel is force closed AND the fund are still blocked, a punisent transaction will be used for force the malicious node to give to you the fund you really own
Backup in lightning is still a problem. To be simple, prevententiom is the key:
- You can backup your channel information (thunderhub and RTL make it easier) for kindly ask to the other nodea to initiate a force closure (because you probably have lost all channels information and are not able to do it anymore)
- you can use watchtowers as insurance, they will send the punishment transaction for you. LN+ have a section for find a watchtower with a mutual defense agreement. Public open watchtower may be overload this days. You can still have more than one watchtowers
- If you have the knowledge, put the data of your lightning node on a RAID-like storage. Never do spot backup of these data because restore a previous state of a channel can make you lost the sats of that channel
Always use an open source wallet.
You must alway trust a developer when you install their app/binary, but doesn't mean is the only way
a lightning node is not resources intensive until you reach a high amount of channels.
What do you really need is keep your computer always online (or as much possible) and enough storage for keep the bitcoin blockchain (1TB for will keep you fine for some tears)
For relays, i don't have enough knowledge yet
Since you just want have your own node in the lightning network, you can just open a channel to a big node and/or buy liquidity by a provider.
This way you will be able to send and receive sats. LN+ is also a way for get both, but as you say, a bad connected node might give you payment failures
If you exhaust your inbound, your option are:
loop out
spend sats
sell sats (https://learn.robosats.com)
You should do your own offer with LN+ with a low entry-barrier (not existing). Yes, you fill find other nodes wjth low channels and liquidity, but growing need a starting point.
You can also buy liquidity with lnbig, amboss'magma or lightning labs'pool. With the last two you buy liquiditu from other users
If you want a profitable node, the truth is just build a routing node without a massive amount ot bitcoin is not enough: it should provide some kind of service (lndhub for example, being used for process payment, etc)