122 sats \ 4 replies \ @theKOMOTION 17 Jul 2022 freebie \ on: Zero fee routing as a donation to everyone bitcoin
Willing to learn, what’s the best way to run my first small
Lightning node?
Umbrel is the usual way to go for user friendliness if you are starting out. It will set up a BTC + LN node for you and comes with many useful apps alongside. BTCSessions has a great video on how to set it up: .
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In my experience the problem for small channels isn't access to tech/nodes.
The problem is that nobody wants to open channels with you. Nobody wants channels with only 1m sats capacity and nobody wants to connect to a node with only 2 other channels.
To lower the barrier to entry we need something like lnbig but for small channels and nodes. Maybe lnsmall? :D
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What I have done to get balanced channels is I will open a channel with another node using my umbrel, then send funds from that channel to an external custodial lightning wallet I own. Once my umbrel channel is half outbound and half inbound I then send the funds from the custodial wallet to my strike account, and then send these funds back to my umbrel with an on chain transaction. Then rinse and repeat until I have several balanced lightning channels I control. It's a pain in the ass but it works.
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I think you can easily get started by using https://lightningnetwork.plus/. I understand most "larger" nodes won't want to join a swap with tiny ones, but in my experience, it works as leveling up in a game. First you need to join swaps with other tiny nodes (<10M sats, <10 channels) and when you grow in size, you end up joining the small nodes club (10-50M sats, 10-30 channels). After that, you go a level up and so on and so forth. It takes a bit of time and patience, but it can be done.
If you post a link to a 1M sats triangle swap in LN+, I'll be happy to join it.
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