I manage my own LN node (Umbrel v4) and I like using it to pay for stuff through the LN. I currently have set up LNDHub integrated with my node and I have Bluewallet running on my phone so I can use my own LNDHub instead of the custodial option from Bluewallet.
I'm very happy overall since this set up is very convenient and I enjoy how my Bluewallet wallet acts as its own subaccount within my node. But performance in paying and receiving payments has been a challenge.
My usual pains:
- Around 20% of my payment attempts fail the first time. Bluewallet will typically stay stuck for ~30 seconds and then throw an error message. Typically, if I retry, it ends up working.
- Around 5% of payments never end up working. No matter how much I retry, it never works. Thankfully, it has never happened in a real life, brick&mortar business where this would be a serious inconvenience. But it's still very frustrating. Because of this, I still have Muun in my phone, even if I don't like not using my node. I want to know that, one way or another, I'll always be able to pay with Lightning.
- Payments are slow, very slow. I don't think any payment I've ever made has confirmed in less than 20 seconds. Some of them have taking up to a minute or even more. This, together with never being certain if the payment will eventually go through or will throw an error, makes the experience pretty crappy.
I understand most of this can be attributed to using Tor, specially these days were its having performance problems. My questions are:
- Is there anything I can configure to keep the same stack (Umbrel on Tor, LNDHub, Bluewallet) but improve performance significantly?
- If not, is there any way I can stop using Tor while keeping my node (1) private and anonymous and (2) easily accessible from outside its local network without having to obtain a minor degree in networking?
- If not, is there any alternative to LNDHub+Bluewallet that would provide me with a similar experience in terms of being able to use my own node with a different subaccount for my day to day spending, but while still using my own node?
To spice things up, I will reward whoever provides the most useful answer with a 2 million sats channel open from my node (I'm in the top #1000 in lightning terminal, to give a clue).
Thanks!