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14 sats \ 10 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec \ parent \ on: Favourite lightning wallets on desktop? lightning

Is up to you how you manage them. Important is that you never use your real identity.

Let me explain a bit what is "decoy wallet":

it is a temporary repository of funds, you never keep your funds there for long time.
it is a temporary deposit when you receive sats, from buying, tips, sells etc, so you will not reveal your real holding wallets or any other cache wallet.
it is a temporary level where you are doing the coin control, management of funds
it is a temporary "cache" place in case you need to rebalance channels, move funds in/out from channels, without using an UTXO (that could reveal your wallets).

Mastering BTC LN wallets require time and knowledge.

Always have in mind this simple chart of the 3 levels stash: hold, cache, spend (LN)

Now think again: where you will locate these "decoy wallets" in this image?

21 sats \ 9 replies \ @stack_harder OP 2 Dec

this brings up a question I was going to ask today actually

so I have the majority of stacking from kyc, at some point, say I want to pay for something larger (since I view this as my savings ), I know if I just move off-chain it is easy to link back to the storage stack.

so to obscure this source and reduce any snooping from a merchant for example, i would send to a fresh hot wallet, then do like a boltz swap to lightning into a fresh LN wallet and then send the merchant?

future buys are non kyc and i think i can follow along

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

this brings up a question I was going to ask today actually

Ask more questions like these. Are good and other stackers can learn from them.

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

Basically something like that, you get it right. Now come up something more about common sense:

if you pay a regular merchant, a grocery shop for example, over LN, your privacy is very good, so you can send from your self-custodial LN nodes / wallets.
if you pay a merchant using onchain, then yes, is better to use a "cache" intermediary wallet, not directly from your holdings. Also using a specific UTXO for that payment. For example you will not use a holding UTXO of 1M sats to pay 50k sats to a grocery shop. because in this way you reveal that big UTXO and also the change UTXO where it goes the rest of the sats.
if you send the sats to a place where is involved your real identity, then always use a decoy wallet. Also if you pay a drug dealer using onchain, be careful not to reveal your UTXOs, better use LN.

Govs will trace your UTXOs only when you sell your sats on KYC exchanges. They do not care too much what you do with it. If you never sell or do stupid shit, there's nothing to worry about your KYC stash. Nobody from a gov could come and say "hey you have x amount of stash bought with KYC from x exchange". Is not their damn business and they cannot do anything about. They cannot take your sats, they can catch you only when you sell back for fiat.

Pay attention to the details in this guide: https://darth-coin.github.io/beginner/getting-started-stack-sats-en.html

You practically can accumulate sats slowly in any custodial LN account and when you have a decent amount, swap it out into a nice UTXO in your cold storage. The custodial accounts can act like decoy wallets, like a buffer zone.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @stack_harder OP 2 Dec

ok, so follow up on this, when you say 'use a specific utxo' - for example, I want to buy something that costs say the equivalent of 5k dollars.

now say i have 1 btc in a stash (i wish!)

so to avoid revealing the amount in the master stash - I would send the equivalent of 5k to a new address I control, thus consolidating the utxo and making the payment from there?

is that the essence of using a specific utxo? or is there something else.

follow up on decent amounts for utxo - Matther Kratter i think says he likes to consolidate at 1 mil sats as that is a number that will be future save in a high fee environment.

do you think this is too high and we can do smaller consolidations without worrying too much?

32 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

Here is a simple chart to understand the amount on UTXOs for a future use.

Yes, in general you get it right, using a cache / buffer zone where you manage your funds. As I explained in this guide, in details - THINK like a bank: https://darth-coin.github.io/beginner/be-your-own-bank-en.html

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @stack_harder OP 2 Dec

this is a very handy visualization actually, 1 mil does seem like a reasonable sweetspot

33 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

I would keep various amounts in multiple UTXOs, in multiple wallets (not the same keys and xpub)

10-20 UTXOs of 10M sats
15-30 UTXOs of 2-5M sats
20-50 UTXOs of 1M sats
some others of 500k sats

Why? In this way you are ready to spend or use for opening decent LN channels. keep in mind you organize your UTXOs based on your opening/closing LN channels, not to make payments from them.

Example: you will not open a 1M LN (private) channel with a 10M UTXO. But you will try to use a smaller one, closer to the amount you want for that channel. When you open a LN channel is recommended to use the entire UTXO leaving no sats back.

Also is recommended to keep a small UTXO of max 100k sats in your node onchain wallet in case is needed for bumping fees for opening/closing channels.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder OP 2 Dec

I'm not running a node yet so would it apply still or is this just something to bookmark for if i start running a lightning node one day?

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

Yes, just keep it in mind, because is better to be well organized from the beginning. Is not really necessary to apply this only when you have a desktop public routing node... you can apply it also for private nodes like Zeus, Blixt , Breez, Electrum, Alby, LNbits, Bitkit etc.

Even if you use only custodial LN accounts for spending but keep the UTXO in your own self-custody wallets, when you move funds from/to your cold stash, you must do it wisely.

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33 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 2 Dec

I would send the equivalent of 5k to a new address I control,

Please try to talk only in sats or BTC. fiat/USD is not relevant when you talk about Bitcoin. What does it mean $5k in BTC today is not relevant in 10 years. Once you understand how Bitcoin works, you will see that I am right, fiat is not relevant. You do not open a LN channel with USD, but with sats.

"sats" is when you talk about payments over LN "BTC" is when you talk about transfers onchain.

Make the difference: payments and transfers. Are not the same. Onchain is the final settlement and is using "transfers" of ownership of UTXOs. LN is the payment network for Bitcoin and is using "payments", moving sats from one channel to another.