Phoenix Wallet allows me to receive payments both in the lightning network and in on-chain (since they provide me both a lightning invoice and a bitcoin address). In which of these two networks would it be better for me to receive my first payment (since Phoenix hasn't created a lightning channel for me yet because I haven't received any sats so far) and why?
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Neither because you just revealed private information to the internet by pasting both invoice and on-chain address.
Do the wallet initialization again, don't paste screenshots containing your private information.
I'm not following. I already shared that info with someone who needs it. Why do I have to reinitialize the wallet? Isn't the main rule just to avoid reusing the same on-chain address? And about the Lightning QR: the node public key is visible, but does that actually matter if I open private channels?
"someone that needs it" is not the same as an indexed public website readable by anyone. It means that your SN nym is now linked to an on-chain address forever - the internet doesn't forget. The same for your LN node id.
Here's what's going to happen: you're going to interact with any data brokerage or a party connected to those to receive some sats. Can be a CEX, can be a robosats/bisq honeypot, one of the custodial wallets... whatever. You use the same wallet as a receiving wallet. Imagine that this includes bank details: now your nym is linked to your rl identity, and any hostile 3rd party can link. It's also linked to an on-chain address that can be, unless you're extremely careful, subjected to heuristics.
All this data is traded between brokerages. The only thing that is still reasonably protected is your LN sender anonymity from this wallet, assuming Acinq doesn't log. But no one cares about what you spend really.
It doesn't have to be world ending, just it is completely unnecessary to share those screenshots, so why do it? Better re-seed if it's an empty wallet so you don't start selfdoxxed.
The channel isn't the problem per se, your other BOLT-11 invoices are.
Phoenix is opening a channel slightly bigger than what are you depositing, I could say with a 10% more. With the new version v0.2.0 that comes with the new LN feature named channel splicing. That means from now on you will not have to deal anymore with lots of new small channels for each payment received.
If there’s not enough inbound liquidity, Phoenix will increase the size of your initial channel, but that will still imply an onchain fee. You can setup that fee anyways in Phoenix settings.
So I suggest to start using Phoenix with a big channel, like 1-3-5M sats. Your commit fees will be insignificant comparing with the size of the channel and will not affect you too much. Also instead of paying 4 times (or whatever many times you deposit small amounts) min 3000 sats fees, you will pay only once.
If you start spending from that channel, do not spend all the balance at once, because Phoenix will close it. If you leave some sats, like 1-5% in the channel and make another refill from another LN wallet / source, with an amount bigger than you channel capacity, Phoenix will resize the channel and you will pay an extra fee. If you receive less than channel capacity, will be no fees involved.
So try to size your initial channel capacity to your personal needs for spending. Spend and replace in the limits of the channel will not occur anymore fees and the experience using this wallet app will be smooth.
For each payment you are doing, this wallet is using quite high fees, compared with other nodes. Yes, somehow they have to cover their expenses and support the dev team. Nothing is for free in this world.
This wallet also have integrated swaps onchain ←→ LN channels, so you could practically use it as a personal swap, you could pay instantly onchain with your LN funds and vice versa.
It is very good option for newbies, that just started with LN and don’t know too much about a node management, but still could have a self custody of their funds. Even if you lose your mobile device, you can use the seed words and recover your funds in an Electrum wallet or on another mobile device with Phoenix.
Please also read more of my guides about multiple wallets:
https://darth-coin.github.io/wallets/wallets-en.html
Thanks for the detailed breakdown, this is really helpful for someone just starting with Phoenix and LN! Overall, your recommendation to start with a big LN deposit to get a solid initial channel makes a lot of sense for minimizing fees and maximizing usability, especially for new LN users. So I will go for that!
The mistake that many new users are doing is they will use ONLY one LN wallet that some infliuencer say to use it. Wrong approach.
Please read "Choose wisely your LN wallets" #583496 don't use only one, use multiple ones. Each wallet have its own particularities and use cases.
I agree, using multiple wallets for different purposes is the way. Much to learn still!
It may be relevant from where the payment is coming. If it is coming from lightning, I'd probably try to receive it in lightning.
Also how big is the payment you are receiving. If you are receiving a payment that is close to the size of the channel you would like, I would receive it as lightning. If you are receiving more than you want for your channel size, do it on chain (although, I'm not sure why you would want to keep on chain sats in Phoenix for very long).
Also, Earth's advice on this is very good.
I love Earth's advice 😂😂
My fat fingers. *Darth.
I agree, if the payment amount is near the channel size I want, Lightning is convenient because it directly creates inbound liquidity, kill two birds with one stone! As Darthcoin commented, if the amount is much larger than the channel size I want or have, then using on‑chain avoids tying up unexpectedly large capacity in a single channel.