20 sats \ 5 replies \ @Scoresby 5 Apr 2023 \ on: A stupid question which I may regret bitcoin
It sounds a little like you expect a channel to exist between your lightning node and your wallet. This doesn't happen.
Channels can only be between nodes and wallets are not nodes. As with on chain bitcoin, wallets cannot interact with the network (send, look at balances) without a node.
If you have paired your wallet with a node, it means you are using your wallet to sign transactions that are being sent or received using the liquidity in the channels your node has set up.
If your node has not set up any channels with other nodes, you can't send or receive.
Where is the bitcoin? With lightning, the answer is always in a channel--one of your channels if using your own lightning node or one of your custodian's if you are using someone else's.
Of course wallets can have their own channels.
Electrum and Phoneix do so, for example, since they are their own node.
reply
Good point. I wasn't thinking of wallets like Phoenix and Breeze.
reply
Right. I understand that. I was asking specifically regarding the situation where the wallet is connected to my node (in my case, Zeus) I should have framed my question better. What I really wanted to know was how to see exactly which of my channels got the added liquidity.
reply
Yes, I got that. I was only replying the poster who said wallets aren't nodes and they don't handle their own channels, which is true for some pieces of software, but not for LN wallets like Electrum, etc.
reply
Thanks for your answer. I think this helps me. One question: If one of my open channels winds up with the balance, how is that selected? Solely based on whatever route the node used to complete the transaction?
reply