My experience after 4 month of node running [8/23 - 12/23] after recognizing bitcoin 3 month before [5/23]

Hello SN!

I wanted to let you know some experiences of my node running/bitcoin-journey in my first post.

The impact

Thanks to Gmoney´s article about nostr(!), I started my bitcoin journey. Bitcoin was never mentioned in any of my peer groups, never heard about it as an asset or as an real asset. Now I understood what Ford wanted us to see. I started the revolution over night and bought hardware to route these little satoshis around the world.

My motives in the beginning...

Routing the most scarce resource on earth, Bitcoin! Stabilizing the network with a full node and a lightning node! Routing fees? No way! Ok, 1 sat/routing is ok, and 1 ppm. Routing for the cause of routing.

My motives after realizing the costs of openings/closures, in/outswaps and rebalancing, compared to their effect on routing...

I started my first channel with my first transaction of about 350,000 sats. My strategy was, opening as many channels, as i can afford. Ignoring the (extreme low = 4-11 sats/vByte) costs, I opened lots of channels. Then I opened to a channel that had horrendous fees (500 ppm). I closed it instantaneously. "What an ignorant!", I thought, undermining this holy network... I discovered lightning plus (mainly triangle) swaps and found it very helpful for beginners to boost inbound liquidity. I had lots of swaps there. My channel count was near 20, in just a few days. Then i had an excellent tip from a reentry node runner: lndg. This showed me my devastating p&l. (I had very high onchain costs, compared to the routing fees.) Calculating the further costs of this adventure let me rethink my fees. Should I get higher fees for rebalancing? How would the other nodes think about me, taking high fees? I tried a new approach and lowered the % costs of rebalancing to 50% of the fees the channel regenerates. To come in effect, I had to increase the fees, drastically...

My motives after realizing that high fees deplete channels but you can rebalance them and low fees deplete channels without profit...

The high fee era lasted not very long: zero routings. But some rebalancings made me proud :) Frustrated, I lowered the fees to 0 ppm... A day later, a lot of routings depleted nearly all my channels and (filled the other ones). Frustrated again, I decided to do it with higher fees and rebalancing. I now had medium, low, high and zero fee channels. Rebalancings occured not very often and I checked the routes to find nodes that have lower fees to avoid higher fees on the existing routes. It becomes an obsession to find better routes for rebalancing... My idea of an ideal node has changed: You can only run a functional node, if it´s profitable enough to rebalance. Or your fees are that low, that your node comes to a halt, due to unrebalanced channels. Bigger channels (that I can´t afford) would reduce the tides and have some backroutings, but in my node a lot of channel stuck and are not rebalancable, due to costs or even routes. Some of my connected nodes were even as enthusiastic as me and opened lots of small channels to smaller nodes. Unrebalanceable from the beginning and very inefficient compared to the opening/closing costs.

My motives after unwanted force closings by my node in times of nft traffic...

I had a force closing with a node because of weather conditions on the other side. Normally a node is down and it´s ok. This time my node decided to force close the channel. I don´t know why till today. I produced a lot of costs. A month later this happened again, the other side was down, caused also by weather conditions. But now the transaction fees were astronomical. The forced closings cost 200 ksats, unbelievable! And again a channel was offline a bit, and the other made an cooperative closing with 21 sats/vByte while the actual costs were around 150. My node decided to force close the channel after expiration of the closing tx. My outbound was around 30ksats and the closing/force closing produced costs of 120 ksats. I had to rethink again. What am I doing? Participating in a game I like, but paying a price I don´t like? For what? I decided to reduce my over 42 channels and close some and bring some sats back onchain.

My motives for the future...

I will ever use a lightning node myself. Despite the costs. I learned a lot these 4 month. And I´m proud to be in Bitcoin. Nodes are extremely useful tools. Every Bitcoiner should have one. My prediction: Nodes will help to erect a peaceful, prosperous, gentle and kind civilization. No faster and cheaper payment than LN, backed by the hardest asset on earth, bitcoin. I bought some hardware. I plan a presentation for my friends. I encourage everyone to run a server at your home for yourself and your loved ones. Data and bitcoin in your hands.

Greets SF