🔥 GingerWallet.io | LN Quest ⚡Up to 50 merits

[Satofan44]

Part 1. My journey with Eclair. I tried following the guide that I found here https://www.claddy.works/blog/lightningnode/. Feedback and issues below.

The first issue that I encountered was with the RPC. Using bitcoin-cli did not work initially, for whatever reason but a restart made it work.

The second issue, is the first line of the eclair configuration file has an error. This may look obvious and simple, but only to us who know what we are doing with these things. I can assure you, that many will not know that there is an error in this:

csharpCopy codeeclair.chain = "regtest"

While we are at this point, I should also mention that I encountered this guide by looking up eclair guides, which I assume other users will do too. The guide does not even clarify that this is regtest only, and an average user will have no idea that this is not the real bitcoin blockchain and that there is a difference at all. I like to know what options I am running, which is the only reason why I spotted this on time.

The third issue, which one will encounter at the last step is that it doesn't mention the java requirement. Depending on the platform and configuration of his system, the user will fail to start the node on the first try. No information is provided in this guide how to install that. I can say that I am not at all satisfied with the structure and order of information on the eclair GitHub either. For example, I couldn't locate instruction on installing the main Java prerequisite. Now to contrast this to some altcoin projects that I have seen, they offer much better information or even scripts that take you through each and every step of the setup. They also try to download and install all prerequisites for the platforms that they support. Usage of such scripts is not mandatory of course.


Lastly, I had another issue in the last step as eclair did not want to start up. After a lot of back and forth, I learned that bitcoind does not automatically load any wallets on startup unless you explicitly configure it to do so. After fixing this, I finally managed to establish a connection. This made me notice that the script file runs in the front, and that additional setup is needed to make it run automatically or as a background service. With this, I mean to say that there is no daemon=1 option like in Bitcoin as far as I could find. Again, I see very little documentation about this and only users who are familiar with this on Linux would be able to do it.

{
  "version": "0.12.0-4df8cd0",
  "nodeId": "hidden",
  "alias": "helloLightning",
  "color": "#49daaa",
  "features": {
    "activated": {
      "option_simple_close": "optional",
      "option_route_blinding": "optional",
      "option_dual_fund": "optional",
      "gossip_queries_ex": "optional",
      "option_data_loss_protect": "mandatory",
      "var_onion_optin": "mandatory",
      "option_static_remotekey": "mandatory",
      "option_scid_alias": "optional",
      "option_onion_messages": "optional",
      "option_support_large_channel": "optional",
      "option_anchors_zero_fee_htlc_tx": "optional",
      "payment_secret": "mandatory",
      "option_shutdown_anysegwit": "optional",
      "option_channel_type": "optional",
      "basic_mpp": "optional",
      "gossip_queries": "optional",
      "option_quiesce": "optional",
      "option_payment_metadata": "optional"
    },
    "unknown": []
  },
  "chainHash": "6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000",
  "network": "mainnet",
  "blockHeight": 895432,
  "publicAddresses": [],
  "instanceId": "hidden"
}

I hope that this shows that I managed this correctly. I hid the instanceId and nodeId on purpose because I do not know what they reveal. This was very exhausting and I need a break before I learn how to set up a channel.  

Eclair receives no recommendation from me for their setup.  

[NotATether]

That is great work, your merits will be on the way.

I have a few comments about your experience:

The third issue, which one will encounter at the last step is that it doesn't mention the java requirement. Depending on the platform and configuration of his system, the user will fail to start the node on the first try. No information is provided in this guide how to install that. I can say that I am not at all satisfied with the structure and order of information on the eclair GitHub either. For example, I couldn't locate instruction on installing the main Java prerequisite. Now to contrast this to some altcoin projects that I have seen, they offer much better information or even scripts that take you through each and every step of the setup. They also try to download and install all prerequisites for the platforms that they support. Usage of such scripts is not mandatory of course.

Lack of good documentation is quite truly the deterrent towards using many kinds of projects, especially when the software is not of the "one-click install" variety.

I suspect one of the reasons why you're not finding good documentation is because such docs are quite time-consuming to write. I imagine developers get exhausted once they finish debugging the actual software and then tune out/tell people to look at the README.

Regarding the regtest typo, you can (and should!) try opening a pull request to change that back to mainnet.

[pawanjain]

P.S: I am back on track @NotATether

Great! Please report back when your node is synced.

Alright. Here we are. Finally made it. Thanks @NotATether  and @LoyceV
I have now shifted the whole setup to my laptop which will continue running for as long as I can.
Will start setting up the lightning node soon.

[Satofan44]

That is great work, your merits will be on the way.

Thank you!! I didn't expect to receive them so early, but I enjoyed going through this experience despite the frustrations that it caused. I think a bigger project could be to try a variety of lightning implementations and then to rate them based on how easy they are to set up. I am not aware of the existence of such a list, usually recommendations are based solely on descriptive features.

The third issue, which one will encounter at the last step is that it doesn't mention the java requirement. Depending on the platform and configuration of his system, the user will fail to start the node on the first try. No information is provided in this guide how to install that. I can say that I am not at all satisfied with the structure and order of information on the eclair GitHub either. For example, I couldn't locate instruction on installing the main Java prerequisite. Now to contrast this to some altcoin projects that I have seen, they offer much better information or even scripts that take you through each and every step of the setup. They also try to download and install all prerequisites for the platforms that they support. Usage of such scripts is not mandatory of course.

Lack of good documentation is quite truly the deterrent towards using many kinds of projects, especially when the software is not of the "one-click install" variety.

I suspect one of the reasons why you're not finding good documentation is because such docs are quite time-consuming to write. I imagine developers get exhausted once they finish debugging the actual software and then tune out/tell people to look at the README.

I can agree with this. However, there are some barriers when it comes to Bitcoin development for a number of reasons. I kind of feel that some of them are too elitists and too insistent on some of their ways. For this, I will give just a single example. I never understood why Bitcoin Core does not automatically generate a .conf file with many or all options included as comments and with some notes. I have seen this in some random shitcoin repositories. There is no harm in this because all options are shut down. This would save users a lot of time looking through extensive documentations and many posts online which contain a lot of outdated information, and it is often not clear that it is outdated!

Secondly, I think they are not likely to let non developers write documentation as part of the official documentation. I do understand some risks are attached with letting strangers do anything, but this is the same for letting new developers participate in the project. Developers writing documentation that is meant to be used by users often does not work well, the developers that can write in a way that users can understand are actually quite rare. It would probably yield better results if the users wrote the guides and they were then just reviewed and approved by the official developers.  

Regarding the regtest typo, you can (and should!) try opening a pull request to change that back to mainnet.

From what I can see it is just in this blog/guide, and not in any official repository. Neither could I locate a repository of his blog, so I will try to email him to fix this and clarify that the guide is for regtest or to change it to mainnet. Thanks for the advice.

[Satofan44]

Part 1. My journey with Eclair.

Part 2. Thunder Hub.

Here is a list of negatives:

• It was not clear to me at first that this was just for a specific implementation of lightning, called LND. The documentation implies knowledge of this and it does not even link LND directly where it mentions it.
• Setup page lists requirements such as NPM and node, but without any installation instructions.
• Other parts of the setup page imply knowledge of terms and setting up configurations to a degree that I would not consider newbie friendly.

Here is a small list of positives and it is only limited to what I have read during my attempt to install it. I did not look up random benefits or ask chatGPT to boost my post size as many users here do.   Of course, I exclude must have positives such as it being open source.

• Integrated TOR proxy and easy to set up.
• Integrated with BTCPay.

Actually, I found the official documentation completely inadequate to fully understand everything. I do like the structure and its conciseness, but it didn't suffice to provide clarity on the right way to approach this if you already have for example Eclair or Bitcoin Core. In fact, I moved on to another guide that I found linked there: https://apotdevin.com/blog/thunderhub-btcpay. This guide also has the issue that it does not mention that this is only for LND, and that other configurations need to be made if you are using another lightning implementation or that it can even work with others than LND.

I failed at this, it seems to require a domain name and I didn't manage to install BTCPay without one. If someone has a better guide for thunder hub that will work with eclair please share. Assuming that it can work with Eclair at all, alternatively I will do a clean start on another instance and try LND.
Part 3. Channels, lightning address, sending sats.

Looking this up led me to this page https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/Usage.md. I was wondering at first why the connection was failing, and then I noticed this key word testnet. Not my brightest 5 minutes.  Further research led me to this great website called: https://1ml.com. On it, one can find easy information about big nodes and their connection information. With that, I ran the following to verify that I can connect to it.

eclair-cli connect --uri=example@ip:port

The next step involved getting my address using bitcoin-cli, and funding it. I generated one and validated my balanced using the following commands

bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
bitcoin-cli getbalance

To open a channel, I used the following command below. I failed on my first try, as I picked a node that has a higher minimum. After trying several and failing, I noticed that many nodes have high minimum requirements and that these are not listed or at least that I am unable to find this information beforehand. I did not like this part at all, because you have to lose a lot of time if you are not lucky or spend a lot more money to get your first channel.

eclair-cli open --nodeId=ID --fundingSatoshis=140000

What I also didn't like at all is that you have to use connect all the time before you can try an open? I don't know whether it is my setup, Eclair or something else but it was annoying having to do that over and over again whenever something failed or if you selected another node. After finding some nodes that have lower requirements, I have still failed at this step as well with the following error message:

mining fee is higher than budget (350 > 140 sat)

I could not find information on how to resolve this, lowering the funding satoshi to 100k does not solve it either. Any help is appreciated. If other implementations are similar, except the mobile ones, I am beginning to understand why people don't even want to try this.  

Sorry for the double post, it is touching on too many things and too large to have only one.

[Mahiyammahi]

After running Bitcoin Core node , it was hard to start with still I tried . I run my LN node on LND
To confirm my LN Node successfully synced with Bitcoin core node I put this promted

Code:

lncli getinfo

I got this result

Code:

{
    "version":  "0.18.5-beta commit=v0.18.5-beta",
    "commit_hash":  "4ccf4fc24c750d098cf24566ef4bbc0311c7d476",
    "identity_pubkey":  "0206abb79af738e8009dff2eeb78cac43441c54c32a65db87398a4903ffded7a50",
    "alias":  "MyPrunedNode",
    "color":  "#3399ff",
    "num_pending_channels":  0,
    "num_active_channels":  0,
    "num_inactive_channels":  0,
    "num_peers":  2,
    "block_height":  895957,
    "block_hash":  "0000000000000000000172ec1306a6b2f58314370aef2dd0573a1defadb478d7",
    "best_header_timestamp":  "1746794076",
    "synced_to_chain":  true,
    "synced_to_graph":  false,
    "testnet":  false,
    "chains":  [
        {
            "chain":  "bitcoin",
            "network":  "mainnet"
        }
    ],
    "uris":  [],
    "features":  {
        "0":  {
            "name":  "data-loss-protect",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "5":  {
            "name":  "upfront-shutdown-script",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "7":  {
            "name":  "gossip-queries",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "8":  {
            "name":  "tlv-onion",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "12":  {
            "name":  "static-remote-key",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "14":  {
            "name":  "payment-addr",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "17":  {
            "name":  "multi-path-payments",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "23":  {
            "name":  "anchors-zero-fee-htlc-tx",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "25":  {
            "name":  "route-blinding",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "27":  {
            "name":  "shutdown-any-segwit",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "30":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "31":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "45":  {
            "name":  "explicit-commitment-type",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "2023":  {
            "name":  "script-enforced-lease",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        }
    },
    "require_htlc_interceptor":  false,
    "store_final_htlc_resolutions":  false
}

C:\lnd>lncli newaddress p2wkh
{
    "address":  "bc1q77mkt9vnqmm9k0cl3zl07wqe8ccqk7tn5r59k6"
}

C:\lnd>lncli getinfo
{
    "version":  "0.18.5-beta commit=v0.18.5-beta",
    "commit_hash":  "4ccf4fc24c750d098cf24566ef4bbc0311c7d476",
    "identity_pubkey":  "0206abb79af738e8009dff2eeb78cac43441c54c32a65db87398a4903ffded7a50",
    "alias":  "MyPrunedNode",
    "color":  "#3399ff",
    "num_pending_channels":  0,
    "num_active_channels":  0,
    "num_inactive_channels":  0,
    "num_peers":  1,
    "block_height":  895957,
    "block_hash":  "0000000000000000000172ec1306a6b2f58314370aef2dd0573a1defadb478d7",
    "best_header_timestamp":  "1746794076",
    "synced_to_chain":  true,
    "synced_to_graph":  false,
    "testnet":  false,
    "chains":  [
        {
            "chain":  "bitcoin",
            "network":  "mainnet"
        }
    ],
    "uris":  [],
    "features":  {
        "0":  {
            "name":  "data-loss-protect",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "5":  {
            "name":  "upfront-shutdown-script",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "7":  {
            "name":  "gossip-queries",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "8":  {
            "name":  "tlv-onion",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "12":  {
            "name":  "static-remote-key",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "14":  {
            "name":  "payment-addr",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "17":  {
            "name":  "multi-path-payments",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "23":  {
            "name":  "anchors-zero-fee-htlc-tx",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "25":  {
            "name":  "route-blinding",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "27":  {
            "name":  "shutdown-any-segwit",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "30":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "31":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "45":  {
            "name":  "explicit-commitment-type",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "2023":  {
            "name":  "script-enforced-lease",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        }
    },
    "require_htlc_interceptor":  false,
    "store_final_htlc_resolutions":  false
} 

I faced issue when I was running LN Node , it was showing eror cause I run Bitoin core nore In prune mode. I have to fix that issue
let me know if everything is ok I will go to next phase
Prepare Thunderhub
Creating First channel
Getting Lighting Address
and recive and send some sats

I have a question for prune mode do I need to backup my channel everyday?
wheeew It's took me nearly 3hour to run and solving little issues , still dont sure If everything is fine.

I used AI for help



I can now create bitcoin Address. Since I've poor connection on my ISP , I used my vps server to do it.

Lack of good documentation is quite truly the deterrent towards using many kinds of projects, especially when the software is not of the "one-click install" variety.

That's actually true for my reason also , when it was showing eror for prune , I thought I have to run my bitcoin node again or try to find another option to run a LN node. I'm not a coding guy, still learnt a lot today. How our cmd promt actually works, How the Lightning node actually works with Bitcoin Core node.

[pawanjain]

Update:
After waiting for a long time I recently got my bitcoin node fully synced and so I started configuring my lightning node.
I went through some documentation and installed LND on my laptop. After configuring I was able to get it synced.
Things were going smooth and "lncli" also returned a sync true response. Below is a screenshot of my bitcoin full node along with my lightning node.



I even created a new wallet and funded it with 32k satoshis getting up all excited to start my lightning channel.
But as I started with thunder hub I started facing challenges. I tried fixing the .env file, accounts.yaml file yet I still keep getting the below error.
I think it has something to do with the tls.cert file and admin.macaroon file but both of them are at the right location.
@NotATether @LoyceV any of you guys can help me get through this?

To be honest "lncli" is far easier to use than to configure thunder hub and use the GUI.

Code:

{
  id: 'f2ed9f47104e8b5c4ddfe5c7c711bdb2ba69ac9c8f56390f6fe6d82635ec7f42',
  err: [
    503,
    'GetWalletInfoErr',
    {
      err: Error: 14 UNAVAILABLE: No connection established. Last error: Error: self-signed certificate
          at callErrorFromStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\call.ts:82:17)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client.ts:360:55)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client-interceptors.ts:458:34)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client-interceptors.ts:419:48)
          at <anonymous> (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\resolving-call.ts:169:24)
          at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:85:11)
      for call at
          at ServiceClientImpl.makeUnaryRequest (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client.ts:325:42)
          at ServiceClientImpl.<anonymous> (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\make-client.ts:189:15)
          at asyncAuto.getWalletInfo (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\lnd_methods\info\get_wallet_info.js:59:28)
          at runTask (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:293:13)
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:233:31
          at processQueue (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:243:13)
          at taskComplete (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:259:9)
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:286:17
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\internal\onlyOnce.js:12:16
        metadata: Metadata { internalRepr: Map(0) {}, options: {} }
      }
    }
  ],
  level: 'error',
  message: 'Error connecting to node',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.649Z'
}
{
  message: 'Unable to connect to any node.',
  level: 'error',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.652Z'
}
{
  message: 'UnableToConnectToAnyNode',
  level: 'error',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.653Z'
}
{
  level: 'error',
  message: 'Initiating subscriptions failed: ',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.654Z'
}

[NotATether]

Update:
After waiting for a long time I recently got my bitcoin node fully synced and so I started configuring my lightning node.
I went through some documentation and installed LND on my laptop. After configuring I was able to get it synced.
Things were going smooth and "lncli" also returned a sync true response. Below is a screenshot of my bitcoin full node along with my lightning node.

That is good. I sent you merits for that, but they're on your previous post (it doesn't really matter though).

I will address the Thunderhub issues shortly. I have to study the problems you two are facing in detail.

[pawanjain]

Update:
After waiting for a long time I recently got my bitcoin node fully synced and so I started configuring my lightning node.
I went through some documentation and installed LND on my laptop. After configuring I was able to get it synced.
Things were going smooth and "lncli" also returned a sync true response. Below is a screenshot of my bitcoin full node along with my lightning node.

That is good. I sent you merits for that, but they're on your previous post (it doesn't really matter though).

I will address the Thunderhub issues shortly. I have to study the problems you two are facing in detail.

I digged more into it and found out that the issue was indeed with the tls.cert path.
I had configured my accounts.yaml file with attribute name as "certPath" but it was actually supposed to be "certificatePath".
Due to this, I was getting a certificate error which restricted me to login to the wallet. It worked fine after correcting that.

I funded my wallet with 31,000 satoshis and thought of opening a channel for 20,000 satoshis while keeping the rest for on chain fees.
I tried opening a channel with few nodes listed on 1ml.com but I keep getting the error RemotePeerDisconnected.

Code:

{
  context: 'ExceptionsHandler',
  stack: [
    'Error: RemotePeerDisconnected\n' +
      '    at <anonymous> (E:\\bccore\\thunderHub\\thunderhub\\src\\server\\modules\\node\\lnd\\lnd.helpers.ts:5:13)\n' +
      '    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)\n' +
      '    at async ChannelsResolver.openChannel (E:\\bccore\\thunderHub\\thunderhub\\src\\server\\modules\\api\\channels\\channels.resolver.ts:177:18)\n' +
      '    at async target (E:\\bccore\\thunderHub\\thunderhub\\node_modules\\@nestjs\\core\\helpers\\external-context-creator.js:74:28)\n' +
      '    at async Object.openChannel (E:\\bccore\\thunderHub\\thunderhub\\node_modules\\@nestjs\\core\\helpers\\external-proxy.js:9:24)'
  ],
  level: 'error',
  message: 'RemotePeerDisconnected',
  timestamp: '2025-05-10T10:52:06.124Z'
}

[Satofan44]

mining fee is higher than budget (350 > 140 sat)

I could not find information on how to resolve this, lowering the funding satoshi to 100k does not solve it either. Any help is appreciated. If other implementations are similar, except the mobile ones, I am beginning to understand why people don't even want to try this.  

I figured it out. The software is trying to say that the mining fee is higher than the channel value 350 000 sat > 140 000 sat. Of course this is still very strange, because that fee in satoshi is equal to about $350 right now. When I tried this again today, it was giving different numbers 168 > 140 but that is still $175. Something is obviously wrong. I used bitcoin-cli to check what fee information it provides at the same time. This call gives the fee per kilobyte for the targeted confirmation time, and I set it to confirmation in the next block. It gives 0.00001833 BTC which is about $2. Which is obviously a more reasonable fee.

Code:

bitcoin-cli estimatesmartfee 1

I don't get where Eclair gets its fee estimate from, and I didn't manage to find the source. If you take a look at this https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/826284cb277c28c7eef14aa275f3d6e3255c8e66/eclair-core/src/main/scala/fr/acinq/eclair/Eclair.scala#L237, it says

   // if no budget is provided for the mining fee of the funding tx, we use a default of 0.1% of the funding amount as a safety measure

Obviously something is very wrong in the estimation, it must be a bug. So I did more digging and found that there is an argument fundingFeeBudgetSatoshis which is not optional: https://acinq.github.io/eclair/#open-2. So I tried:

Code:

eclair-cli open --nodeId=ID --fundingSatoshis=140000 --fundingFeeBudgetSatoshis=2000

And it worked!! I have my first channel now, after 3 days of headache. The actual fee was less than 200 satoshis in the end.  

Here it is: https://1ml.com/channel/985452689622302721.

Is this enough for step 3 or do I need to do something else? I will get back to Thunderhub when I try opening channels with LND.

[pawanjain]

I used Amboss.space to find a smaller channel to test the connection and I was successful in opening a channel.
I learnt that there are two kinds of channels which are

1. Public Channel - Used for routing payments through your node
2. Private Channel - Used for direct payments

I didn't knew that many nodes require at least 100k satoshis to open a channel, otherwise I would have deposited a higher amount in my wallet.
So I started searching for smaller channels and found a few and here's my first connection to a public channel.

Channel Id: 896244x2305x1



@NotATether - I still have one issue left which is my peers keep disconnecting. I have tried setting port forwarding to 9735 but the peers still keep on disconnecting and due to this the synced_to_graph value is false even though synced_to_chain is true. Any idea why and how can I keep them consistent?

P.S: Can you share me your public key so that I can open a channel with you and send you some sats to complete this marathon ?

[Satofan44]

I used Amboss.space to find a smaller channel to test the connection and I was successful in opening a channel.
I learnt that there are two kinds of channels which are

1. Public Channel - Used for routing payments through your node
2. Private Channel - Used for direct payments

The words they used in OP is sending and receiving channel, does it refer to this? I thought all channels were bidirectional.

[pawanjain]

I used Amboss.space to find a smaller channel to test the connection and I was successful in opening a channel.
I learnt that there are two kinds of channels which are

1. Public Channel - Used for routing payments through your node
2. Private Channel - Used for direct payments

The words they used in OP is sending and receiving channel, does it refer to this? I thought all channels were bidirectional.

All channels are indeed bidirection but what I have posted are the just types of channels.
You can find more public channels using the link I have provided above.
To send and receive funds via channels we would have to open a channel and then send some sats to that node and then receive some from them.

[Mahiyammahi]

But as I started with thunder hub I started facing challenges. I tried fixing the .env file, accounts.yaml file yet I still keep getting the below error.
I think it has something to do with the tls.cert file and admin.macaroon file but both of them are at the right location.

It's been my headache, My .env file and accounts.yaml everything is fine I tried thunderhub version 13.24 & latest 13.32 both but I'm not getting any Login info. Which version did you used?

I digged more into it and found out that the issue was indeed with the tls.cert path.
I had configured my accounts.yaml file with attribute name as "certPath" but it was actually supposed to be "certificatePath".
Due to this, I was getting a certificate error which restricted me to login to the wallet. It worked fine after correcting that.

Are you able to fixed the login issue and logged in?
It seems like everything is fine for me but account.yaml is not responding in docker. I'm using docker to call accounts.yaml

For my case,  I had run the bitcoin core node and Lnd node on a windows vps. But when hosting thunder hub facing issue with my docker and thunder hub. Evertime I try to run It's crashing. Then I find out my vps provider keeps me restricting.  So I tried to host this on a ubuntu everything was fine. I was calling LND from windows vps. I was successful on that. But I'm having issues with account.yaml

I'm not getting any login information on thunderhub webpage

[NotATether]

OK everyone, I'm going to distribute the merits shortly, but like I said earlier, I want to provide some feedback about your experiences first.

Voltage's bill that is $25/month for a Lightning node feels like too much, especially since my node was largely idle, so I shut it down and was busy creating a cheaper LN node on a VPS. So I am in am in the same boat as you when it comes to channels.

Fortunately, Phoenix Wallet on mobiles is excellent! You can send & receive sats and it just connects to ACINQ's giant channel. They have done a very good job with this software. Zeus Wallet is also similar, but you'll have to wait for a while while it's starting.

If you're experiencing problems with sending payments then you can try that as a fix.

Looking this up led me to this page https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/Usage.md. I was wondering at first why the connection was failing, and then I noticed this key word testnet. Not my brightest 5 minutes.  Further research led me to this great website called: https://1ml.com. On it, one can find easy information about big nodes and their connection information. With that, I ran the following to verify that I can connect to it.

You have to be careful not to run testnet by accident, as it's only useful to developers. Mainnet is what 99% of users will be looking for.

What I also didn't like at all is that you have to use connect all the time before you can try an open? I don't know whether it is my setup, Eclair or something else but it was annoying having to do that over and over again whenever something failed or if you selected another node. After finding some nodes that have lower requirements, I have still failed at this step as well with the following error message:

mining fee is higher than budget (350 > 140 sat)

I could not find information on how to resolve this, lowering the funding satoshi to 100k does not solve it either. Any help is appreciated. If other implementations are similar, except the mobile ones, I am beginning to understand why people don't even want to try this.  

Sorry for the double post, it is touching on too many things and too large to have only one.

While I am not familiar with eclair's configuration files, I'm pretty sure that there is a config entry to adjust the budget, or maybe eclair has a subcommand for that.

However, the minimum sats requirement can be quite frustrating at times, as it shuts out smaller players. But let's say you opened a channel with one million sats capacity. There would be almost no issues with the bigger nodes.

Code:

{
  id: 'f2ed9f47104e8b5c4ddfe5c7c711bdb2ba69ac9c8f56390f6fe6d82635ec7f42',
  err: [
    503,
    'GetWalletInfoErr',
    {
      err: Error: 14 UNAVAILABLE: No connection established. Last error: Error: self-signed certificate
          at callErrorFromStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\call.ts:82:17)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client.ts:360:55)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client-interceptors.ts:458:34)
          at Object.onReceiveStatus (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client-interceptors.ts:419:48)
          at <anonymous> (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\resolving-call.ts:169:24)
          at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:85:11)
      for call at
          at ServiceClientImpl.makeUnaryRequest (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\client.ts:325:42)
          at ServiceClientImpl.<anonymous> (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\@grpc\grpc-js\src\make-client.ts:189:15)
          at asyncAuto.getWalletInfo (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\lnd_methods\info\get_wallet_info.js:59:28)
          at runTask (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:293:13)
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:233:31
          at processQueue (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:243:13)
          at taskComplete (E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:259:9)
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\auto.js:286:17
          at E:\bccore\thunderHub\thunderhub\node_modules\lightning\node_modules\async\internal\onlyOnce.js:12:16
        metadata: Metadata { internalRepr: Map(0) {}, options: {} }
      }
    }
  ],
  level: 'error',
  message: 'Error connecting to node',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.649Z'
}
{
  message: 'Unable to connect to any node.',
  level: 'error',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.652Z'
}
{
  message: 'UnableToConnectToAnyNode',
  level: 'error',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.653Z'
}
{
  level: 'error',
  message: 'Initiating subscriptions failed: ',
  timestamp: '2025-05-09T14:43:56.654Z'
}

@NotATether - I still have one issue left which is my peers keep disconnecting. I have tried setting port forwarding to 9735 but the peers still keep on disconnecting and due to this the synced_to_graph value is false even though synced_to_chain is true. Any idea why and how can I keep them consistent?

P.S: Can you share me your public key so that I can open a channel with you and send you some sats to complete this marathon ?

There's two errors in this log output and the first one is that it's complaining about your using self-signed certificates. So maybe try turning that off and using plain HTTP and try again.

The second error 'UnableToConnectToAnyNode' comes from LND not having any peers, I believe.

I see that you have already fixed the first error by adjusting your tls.cert file. If peers are disconnecting, and your internet connection is relatively stable, then they could simply be bad peers. Some of the nodes with bigger channel sizes might be more reliable, but I guess that's too many sats. It's alright.

I figured it out. The software is trying to say that the mining fee is higher than the channel value 350 000 sat > 140 000 sat. Of course this is still very strange, because that fee in satoshi is equal to about $350 right now. When I tried this again today, it was giving different numbers 168 > 140 but that is still $175. Something is obviously wrong. I used bitcoin-cli to check what fee information it provides at the same time. This call gives the fee per kilobyte for the targeted confirmation time, and I set it to confirmation in the next block. It gives 0.00001833 BTC which is about $2. Which is obviously a more reasonable fee.

~


Here it is: https://1ml.com/channel/985452689622302721.

Is this enough for step 3 or do I need to do something else? I will get back to Thunderhub when I try opening channels with LND.

Yeah, that is good enough. It might be better for you to explicitly specify the (maximum?) transaction fee, but I see you've already done that.

The words they used in OP is sending and receiving channel, does it refer to this? I thought all channels were bidirectional.

All channels are indeed bidirection but what I have posted are the just types of channels.
You can find more public channels using the link I have provided above.
To send and receive funds via channels we would have to open a channel and then send some sats to that node and then receive some from them.

That's good, I just want to comment that the person who opened the channel has to spend the funds first, by sending it to the other person. Since technically the bitcoins are still in their own HLTCs.

But as I started with thunder hub I started facing challenges. I tried fixing the .env file, accounts.yaml file yet I still keep getting the below error.
I think it has something to do with the tls.cert file and admin.macaroon file but both of them are at the right location.

It's been my headache, My .env file and accounts.yaml everything is fine I tried thunderhub version 13.24 & latest 13.32 both but I'm not getting any Login info. Which version did you used?

I'm not getting any login information on thunderhub webpage

Try using this template:

Code:

accounts:
  - name: default
    serverUrl: <ip address>:10009
    macaroonPath: /lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon  # change this to the correct path
    certificatePath: /lnd/tls.cert  # change this to the correct path
    password: <specify a password here>

Once again, I would like to congratulate everyone for their node-running efforts. As you have seen, it is clearly not easy to run a Lightning node, but they are essential for powering the Lightning Network.

[pawanjain]

But as I started with thunder hub I started facing challenges. I tried fixing the .env file, accounts.yaml file yet I still keep getting the below error.
I think it has something to do with the tls.cert file and admin.macaroon file but both of them are at the right location.

It's been my headache, My .env file and accounts.yaml everything is fine I tried thunderhub version 13.24 & latest 13.32 both but I'm not getting any Login info. Which version did you used?

I have been using version 0.13.31. It would be great if you share the error message that you are getting and your accounts.yaml file configuration. You can mask your password and paste the rest here for us to debug the issue.

I'm not getting any login information on thunderhub webpage

Yeah that's probably because your accounts.yaml file is not correctly configured.

[leonair]

I did tried to run Full LND node , but my bitcoin core node was running in prune mode .That's why I run Lnd Node in  Neutrino mode. If anyone knows that Lnd can be run in Bitcoin core prune mode please assist .

Lncli getinfor fetch this result

Code:

 
{
    "version":  "0.19.0-beta.rc5 commit=",
    "commit_hash":  "3707b1fb7032d98dc2a8e881d3ae83e61fbc35e3",
    "identity_pubkey":  "025e364e1990c113ffeeba4a63b5a6cdb31ad845ced2913d973fa5c0e7c58beef1",
    "alias":  "myNeutrinoNode",
    "color":  "#3399ff",
    "num_pending_channels":  0,
    "num_active_channels":  0,
    "num_inactive_channels":  0,
    "num_peers":  0,
    "block_height":  438000,
    "block_hash":  "0000000000000000010c8dd3a503ccb58bf1f7b671a3140a3d938d1ea319eeb9",
    "best_header_timestamp":  "1478655703",
    "synced_to_chain":  false,
    "synced_to_graph":  false,
    "testnet":  false,
    "chains":  [
        {
            "chain":  "bitcoin",
            "network":  "mainnet"
        }
    ],
    "uris":  [],
    "features":  {
        "0":  {
            "name":  "data-loss-protect",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "5":  {
            "name":  "upfront-shutdown-script",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "7":  {
            "name":  "gossip-queries",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "8":  {
            "name":  "tlv-onion",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "12":  {
            "name":  "static-remote-key",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "14":  {
            "name":  "payment-addr",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "17":  {
            "name":  "multi-path-payments",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "23":  {
            "name":  "anchors-zero-fee-htlc-tx",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "25":  {
            "name":  "route-blinding",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "27":  {
            "name":  "shutdown-any-segwit",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "30":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  true,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "31":  {
            "name":  "amp",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "45":  {
            "name":  "explicit-commitment-type",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "261":  {
            "name":  "endorsement-x",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        },
        "2023":  {
            "name":  "script-enforced-lease",
            "is_required":  false,
            "is_known":  true
        }
    },
    "require_htlc_interceptor":  false,
    "store_final_htlc_resolutions":  false
} 

next step I will try to create some channel and do txn and create a thunderhub webpage

[Wonder Work]

Previously, I downloaded Bitcoin Core and ran Bitcoin Node. After completing the 14-day journey on 2024/06/03, I could fully synced Bitcoin Note. Since I had to run Bitcoin Note on my device, I did not have to download it again.

Day 14: Complete My Journey [100% Done]

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 850479,
  "headers": 850479,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000034b8816029b2fe3f00dd657cedfc531050a5515a00daa",
  "difficulty": 83675262295059.91,
  "time": 1719977958,
  "mediantime": 1719976298,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999988694042088,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000818ecf27a23818ba8b58e810",
  "size_on_disk": 19929168243,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 839796,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 19999490048,
  "warnings": ""
}

Today, in my free time, I sat down and ran LND Node again. At first, everything was going over my head, but later, after a lot of effort, I was able to fully syn... Normally, if someone starts running LND Node, they will lose their heads. However, if they can do it patiently and slowly by solving small problems, then LND Node will be able to successfully sync.

Code:

{
    "version": "0.18.5-beta commit=v0.18.5-beta",
    "commit_hash": "4ccf4fc24c750d098cf24566ef4bbc0311c7d476",
    "identity_pubkey": "03d1d18eb808e1cd33e1cd4027f7c261465b7e2749510c6b95563e98dc3eb1adae",
    "alias": "03d1d18eb808e1cd33e1",
    "color": "#3399ff",
    "num_pending_channels": 0,
    "num_active_channels": 0,
    "num_inactive_channels": 0,
    "num_peers": 0,
    "block_height": 316000,
    "block_hash": "00000000000000000d77a89ab1069e47d1213ae509de95ee0d9ab095a725f7d7",
    "best_header_timestamp": "1408239719",
    "synced_to_chain": false,
    "synced_to_graph": false,
    "testnet": false,
    "chains": [
        {
            "chain": "bitcoin",
            "network": "mainnet"
        }
    ],
    "uris": [],
    "features": {
        "0": {
            "name": "data-loss-protect",
            "is_required": true,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "5": {
            "name": "upfront-shutdown-script",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "7": {
            "name": "gossip-queries",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "8": {
            "name": "tlv-onion",
            "is_required": true,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "12": {
            "name": "static-remote-key",
            "is_required": true,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "14": {
            "name": "payment-addr",
            "is_required": true,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "17": {
            "name": "multi-path-payments",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "23": {
            "name": "anchors-zero-fee-htlc-tx",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "25": {
            "name": "route-blinding",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "27": {
            "name": "shutdown-any-segwit",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "30": {
            "name": "amp",
            "is_required": true,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "31": {
            "name": "amp",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "45": {
            "name": "explicit-commitment-type",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        },
        "2023": {
            "name": "script-enforced-lease",
            "is_required": false,
            "is_known": true
        }
    },
    "require_htlc_interceptor": false,
    "store_final_htlc_resolutions": false
}

After running LN Node, I encountered some problems, so I talked to my friend about what the problem was and what the solution could be. After discussing these issues and using the Internet, I was finally able to fully sync.



Complete And Successfull [SYNCED]

[Ethan_Crypto]

This is really amazing, I would love to participate but I don't know if this can be done on PC(Laptop). I'm not very conversant with running nodes. I would appreciate your feedback

[|MINER|]

This is really amazing, I would love to participate but I don't know if this can be done on PC(Laptop). I'm not very conversant with running nodes. I would appreciate your feedback

Yes, you can run it on your laptop 

And as far as I found this thread^{Complete GUIDE for Lightning Desktop Nodes} where you can find the complete guidelines even I didn't tired it but you can take a view of this thread, may be it can be useful for you