1036 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 8 Apr \ on: Will Pleb Hobby Lightning Nodes Be Big, Profitable Enterprises In The Future? lightning
If your node is stable and have good channels and is routing, just leave it be.
I am sure you already read my "vision" about LN future here: #486306
If you really want to run a profitable public node, nothing wrong with that. But in time you will need to do a lot of improvements, in channels, in volume, in maintenance, upgrading software etc.
What many hobby routing nodes plebs do not take in consideration is that they cannot know upfront the cost of closing channels in the future, so all this "profitability" of running a hobby node is not anymore profitable.
IMHO after I run several LN nodes, in different modes, is that to reach that profitability you need to move around a lot of capital and keep the good channels up as much as you can. But unfortunately for various reasons you will get some force closed channels and all your "profit" predictions goes to the bin.
For a "regular Joe" user of LN I will always suggest: run a private node. No need to run public channels and look for profits from routing. And nothing wrong with that.
Private channels does not get force closed so easily and so often. Also do not need to put too much liquidity in your channels, just enough for your regular needs.
Thanks for this great information, as usual. I should have made the point that for me, I don't plan any changes or look to run a profitable lightning node. Maybe I have been lucky, but I have never had a ton of force closes. But, you raise a good point about my argument. In the future, on chain closing fees will in all likelihood also be huge. Something to think about.
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