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

[ABCbits]

I don't plan to join this quest, although it reminds me when i tried LN using Zap wallet (which was least painful way) many years ago. But with Ctrl-F i didn't find whether you refer to mainnet, testnet4 or either network, so you may want to mention it explicitly.

[NotATether]

I don't plan to join this quest, although it reminds me when i tried LN using Zap wallet (which was least painful way) many years ago. But with Ctrl-F i didn't find whether you refer to mainnet, testnet4 or either network, so you may want to mention it explicitly.

This is not testnet - this is the live network with everyone's money on it. It is more useful for people who want to do something practical with their nodes after they're done with this.

[MusaPk]

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KItleddMYFU

I tried to setup a LN using this link but I stopped because it says that as pre requisite to LN is that "You need to have a full Bitcoin node, not just a LN running a copy of Bitcoin Blockchain."

Moreover, my laptop is enough to run a node or I need to get some specialized server type machine to run a LN?

[Cricktor]

~~~

Well, your Lightning node software, whatever it is, LND, c-Lightning or something else, needs to communicate to a Bitcoin node, mostly that's a Core node.

Did you read and understand the initial post? Your Bitcoin Core node doesn't need to have the full blockchain on storage, a pruned node will work, too. Let the pruned node sync first, then connect your Lighning node software to it.

NotATether didn't elaborate in details what they meant by providing a Bitcoin Core node to connect a user's Lightning node to it. Simply ask for details...

[NotATether]

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KItleddMYFU

I tried to setup a LN using this link but I stopped because it says that as pre requisite to LN is that "You need to have a full Bitcoin node, not just a LN running a copy of Bitcoin Blockchain."

Moreover, my laptop is enough to run a node or I need to get some specialized server type machine to run a LN?

That's not very accurate because 1) you can use Neutrino mode instead of Bitcoin nodes and 2) I already have a synced node from which I can generate RPC credentials for you.

You can even run a LN node on your desktop, but to receive payments (zaps) you need to keep it on.

NotATether didn't elaborate in details what they meant by providing a Bitcoin Core node to connect a user's Lightning node to it. Simply ask for details...

So basically, you need an RPC connection and a ZMQ connection from Bitcoin core to the LND software.

Basically, you need these options in bitcoin.conf:

Code:

rpcuser=yourUsername 
rpcpassword=yourStrongPassword 
zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:28332 
zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28333

The ZMQ publishing ports are for automatically relaying new blocks and transactions to LND, but there's also a mode where you can poll the RPC server with that information. In the case of the host I'd set it to 0.0.0.0 for all users to connect.

The only thing I don't like about this is that there can only be one RPC user/password. Wallet functionality is disabled so that's not a problem. But people can still stop the node with it and cause annoyances.

[NeuroticFish]

As some news, I managed to send 110k sats (i.e. what NotATether has suggested in this quest + some more to make sure I cover the fees) to my Phoenix wallet while the on chain fees are this incredibly small and they've opened a LN channel for me.

I have now a LN channel with 108k sats balance and 14.5k inbound liquidity (whatever that means lol!) Yeah, I'll do some more homework... when I'll have time for it.

I guess that I don't "qualify" for the quest since I've skipped the first two steps, however, I am pretty happy with the outcome, especially as I've wanted to do this step for months, hence thanks for this anyway.

[Cricktor]

I have now a LN channel with 108k sats balance and 14.5k inbound liquidity (whatever that means lol!) Yeah, I'll do some more homework... when I'll have time for it.

At this state you can send roughly 108k sats, i.e. that is your current outbound or sending capacity. With 14.5k inbound capacity (without prior sending!) your channel can immediately accept a payment of 14.5k sats to your LN wallet. Your Phoenix channel's total capacity is thus 122.5k sats at this moment.

Phoenix usually gives you about 10-15% of the funding amount as inbound capacity, so that you can immediately receive small payment without prior sending.

When you fund a "normal", say LND, channel with 110k sats, you have around 108k outbound capacity (around 2k sats are reserved for channel closure at current low mempool fees; the reserve amount will automatically vary with on-chain fee levels) and zero(!) inbound capacity. With zero inbound capacity your channel can't accept a single sat. So to get inbound capacity for such a channel you need to spend some sats first. If you send e.g. 38k sats, you end up with 70k sats outbound capacity (to send) and 38k inbound capacity (to receive).

It takes a bit to get the hang of it...

[NotATether]

When you fund a "normal", say LND, channel with 110k sats, you have around 108k outbound capacity (around 2k sats are reserved for channel closure at current low mempool fees; the reserve amount will automatically vary with on-chain fee levels) and zero(!) inbound capacity. With zero inbound capacity your channel can't accept a single sat. So to get inbound capacity for such a channel you need to spend some sats first. If you send e.g. 38k sats, you end up with 70k sats outbound capacity (to send) and 38k inbound capacity (to receive).

And that's another thing I forgot to mention. The Lightning daemons themselves need at least two channels to work properly - a sending and receiving channel - some apps automatically create the receiving capacity for you for free, or for a small fee.

[Cricktor]

~~~

I disagree partly. Technically you don't need two channels, one to send, the other to receive, to be able to send and receive coins. You can send coins when your sole channel has outbound capacity. You can receive coins with the same sole channel if this channel has inbound capacity. (In this case all coin flow from your LN node goes through your channel partner. Your channel partner needs to be able to properly route your coins to and from some other LN node.)

The thing is just that when you fund and open a channel all liquidity is usually first on the outbound side. You can immediately send coins to your channel partner or routed by him to another LN node. But as you usually don't have any inbound capacity immediately after opening a channel (what Phoenix wallet does is not common!) you can't yet receive any coins to that channel as long as you don't create inbound capacity by sending out some coins from that channel.

What is true, you need at least two channels to route coins through your node. Your node could route a payment of someone else that goes in through a channel of yours that has enough inbound capacity and that goes out by your other channel that has enough outbound capacity (you can claim a little bit of routing fees; don't even think to get greedy).

[NotATether]

I disagree partly. Technically you don't need two channels, one to send, the other to receive, to be able to send and receive coins. You can send coins when your sole channel has outbound capacity. You can receive coins with the same sole channel if this channel has inbound capacity. (In this case all coin flow from your LN node goes through your channel partner. Your channel partner needs to be able to properly route your coins to and from some other LN node.)

The thing is just that when you fund and open a channel all liquidity is usually first on the outbound side. You can immediately send coins to your channel partner or routed by him to another LN node. But as you usually don't have any inbound capacity immediately after opening a channel (what Phoenix wallet does is not common!) you can't yet receive any coins to that channel as long as you don't create inbound capacity by sending out some coins from that channel.

What is true, you need at least two channels to route coins through your node. Your node could route a payment of someone else that goes in through a channel of yours that has enough inbound capacity and that goes out by your other channel that has enough outbound capacity (you can claim a little bit of routing fees; don't even think to get greedy).

Yes, that is correct, but I just want to point out that most software opens channels via the way you mentioned in the second paragraph.


Where are our node runners? Guys, come and run some nodes. You can even get some free merits for doing so.

[SensitiveEyes]

I did not dabble in LN before but I am running a fully synced Bitcoin node. Do I qualify for the 30 merits if I use Electrum wallet for opening lightning channels?

Where are our node runners? Guys, come and run some nodes. You can even get some free merits for doing so.

[NotATether]

I did not dabble in LN before but I am running a fully synced Bitcoin node. Do I qualify for the 30 merits if I use Electrum wallet for opening lightening channels?

Where are our node runners? Guys, come and run some nodes. You can even get some free merits for doing so.

You'll get 10 merits if you open a lightning channel. Since you're running Electrum, you can open up to three of them and get 10 merits for each one. More channels = better.

Channels are not cheap to open so this is a good incentive for opening them.

Besides, Electrum is known to have payment routing issues with only one channel, as I saw for myself some time ago. So better to open more than one channel.

[SensitiveEyes]

I had hopes for opening Electrum channels but have to let it go because your post took my confidence away. Three Electrum channels will not be cheap. I will read about the Electrum routing issues, when I am ready I may potentially select a new option. I have one problem less to think about because I have a fully synced node.

You'll get 10 merits if you open a lightning channel. Since you're running Electrum, you can open up to three of them and get 10 merits for each one. More channels = better.

Channels are not cheap to open so this is a good incentive for opening them.

Besides, Electrum is known to have payment routing issues with only one channel, as I saw for myself some time ago. So better to open more than one channel.

[NotATether]

I had hopes for opening Electrum channels but have to let it go because your post took my confidence away. Three Electrum channels will not be cheap. I will read about the Electrum routing issues, when I am ready I may potentially select a new option. I have one problem less to think about because I have a fully synced node.

You misunderstood my post. You don't have to open 3 channels. You can open one if you want to. It's just that I will hand out 10 merit for each channel opened.

That way, people who don't want to run an entire LND can get merits for that part.

I chose 10 so that it won't be *too much* merit just for opening the channel.

[joker_josue]

Some time ago, I still investigated about creating an LN channel in Windows. But I ended up not moving forward.

Perhaps this can be an opportunity to look at this situation again. But, what would be the best program to create an LN channel on Windows?

[NeuroticFish]

Some time ago, I still investigated about creating an LN channel in Windows. But I ended up not moving forward.

Perhaps this can be an opportunity to look at this situation again. But, what would be the best program to create an LN channel on Windows?

I wanted to do the same, i.e. under Windows, but I gave up because of rather low uptime of my computer.
However, in my research I've seen that LND has Windows release and I've found a pretty detailed tutorial for it. I can't say if they are actually good, but they surely look promising.

[joker_josue]

I wanted to do the same, i.e. under Windows, but I gave up because of rather low uptime of my computer.
However, in my research I've seen that LND has Windows release and I've found a pretty detailed tutorial for it. I can't say if they are actually good, but they surely look promising.

Yeah... I think I went through that option. I don't remember if it was this or another tutorial I saw, but I'll look at it again.

I have a full Bitcoin node spinning, so if the whole process was less complicated I would have done it already. But, it's quite complex and complicated, and I need to have some free time to focus on it and analyze everything.

[Cricktor]

Since I've my Umbrel node spinning for three years and something, more as a technology study than for serious LN operation, and someone needs to step up first, I'll give it a go (don't expect fast pace, my Raspi Umbrel node suffers currently a concerning full storage. I'm hesitant to lock coins into channels at the current state.



This isn't valid proof, so what do you want me to provide to check off the first step of this quest?

[apogio]

I do have a lightning node with 3 open channels, but I 'd like to keep them private.

I was thinking about setting up a new one for this challenge.

Phoenix opens up and manages channels for you, does it count? Because it's technically running a node on your mobile device, but it helps you avoid much hassle.

[SensitiveEyes]

Thanks I misunderstood at first but it is clear now. You could help I am trying to find a way to open LN channels without paying deposits. Electrum requires deposits. Do all LN over full nodes require deposits to open channels?

You misunderstood my post. You don't have to open 3 channels. You can open one if you want to. It's just that I will hand out 10 merit for each channel opened.

That way, people who don't want to run an entire LND can get merits for that part.

I chose 10 so that it won't be *too much* merit just for opening the channel.