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Bitcoin LN node for travelling

Let's take this use case scenario: you are traveling with family abroad and just want a quick solution for pocket money. Yes, you already have a home LN node bla bla but you do not want to involve that one, for many reasons.
What do you want for this?
  • a simple LN wallet for spend and receive LN payments
  • quick inbound and outbound liquidity, separated from your home node
  • disposable node, temporary use without hassle
  • you maybe travel to places where you cannot access you home node or you cannot have access to a VPN etc @BTCLNAT this case is very interesting for you, in Cuba, with the shity connection you have there. Can be a solution (but not for long term).
  • you want to put a max spending budget to your LN node wallet
Here I tested for you a VERY QUICK SOLUTION!

Rizful remote nodes + Alby Go

Thanks to @rizful_com and @Alby for this wonderful quick solution!
  1. Go to https://rizful.com/ and create an account
  2. Start a new node in few clicks. Read the very well explained documentation here https://rizful.com/docs. Very simple and straight forward. The node is better to be private, with private channels.
  3. Buy an inbound channel (see docs) of the size you need for your travel, 500k - 1M - 2M whatever is suitable for you. The bigger it is, less fees you pay. And remember is better to start with an inbound channel. Why? Because you do not have to do 2 onchain txs, but just ONE over LN. Yes, you pay for opening an inbound channel over LN. Fast, cheap, private (you do not need to use any of your UTXOs).
  4. Configure your personalized LN address (see docs, very well explained)
  5. Configure your NWC for send & receive (see docs), in few clicks you have it ready.
IMPORTANT! Save all this information into a password manager (just in case you need it, SHTF case etc):
  • login page and account
  • nodeID, Node pubkey, nodeURI, NWC string
  • nostr pubkey/privkey in case you use it.
  1. Open Alby Go on your mobile device and add a new wallet (top right - wallets).
  2. Paste the NWC string from Rizful for send & receive (not just receive, you want to be able to do both ways)
  3. From any other LN wallet you have or your own LN node, send the amount of sats you need for that travel to your Rizful LN address or create a LN invoice directly from Rizful node and pay it. You will see the sats in a moment into your Alby Go app (it take a while to refresh or just close the app and restart).
DONE! Now you are good to go.
Optional: you can connect this node using NWC (send & receive) with your SN account too. See here instructions.
Optional you could connect Alby browser extension using the same NWC string into your laptop browser.
With the same NWC you can use it also on nostr, with the LN address too.
HAPPY TRAVELLING LIGHTNING !
111 sats \ 1 reply \ @nout 21 Dec
It's funny how exactly the requirements match my current situation. I actually wrote a tutorial for hosted solution here #808573 (it's completely free, but also a bit easier to pull the rug under you), but this one with hosted ln node is somewhat better.
Just posting here the current prices for the inbound channel:
Channel CapacityCost
500,000 sats ($500)13,898 sats ($14)
1,000,000 sats ($950)20,935 sats ($20)
3,000,000 sats ($2900)48,980 sats ($48)
6,000,000 sats ($5850)94,367 sats ($92)
12,000,000 sats ($11700)181,958 sats ($177)
And then you may need to pay rizful to keep your node running (1 month: 25,000 sats ($24.35))
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yes I member that tutorial. Really good.
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connecting alby extension or alby go by rizful NWC are we incurring fees from alby?
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No, Alby in this case is just the app provider. No fees incurred. It is your own node, you will pay only the routing fees for your payments. Very good question.
Here is my Alby Go app using multiple NWC accounts
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Indeed, great solution. But better yet, accept Rizful test invitation and get a free channel with 11k sats balance for learning how to use it.
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Traducido en Español aquí 🇪🇸 #819207
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Te ha gustado el tutorial? Lo vez utilizable en tu caso?
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Si claro, ya lo he testado y funciona a la perfección! Por eso decidimos traducirlo :)
Lo que me falta en rizful es una manera de conectar ese nodo con zeus o bitbanana wallets
De toda forma AlbyGo funciona muy bién y es muy sencillo
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Thank you, dear friend. I will try this solution. Although it is not definitive according to your recommendation, it can help here. Here, as long as it is Bitcoin, everything is welcome. Thanks again.
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idk, maybe a NWC connection can help you. The Rizful node is remote so all the LN graph stuff is not dependable of your low latency connection. Is an option to have it in mind, not that is the ultimate solution.
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keep it simple for beginners
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110 sats \ 1 reply \ @gandules 19 Dec
Where do you get the NWC string from Rizful?
This looks amazing, Darth.
How do we know that they're not a chain analysis honeypot?
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Just think again: a honeypot will insist on the thing that they are running DISPOSABLE LN NODES ? A honeypot will try to keep the user as long is possible to trace you back. What is going to "analyze" if you are throwing away the node?
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Nothing is more dangerous than the illusion of safety and privacy.
I guess what i am asking if there’s an attack vector where they can survey all payments and potentially break down privacy.
Alice creates a node, sends a bunch of payments, then disposes of the node because she wants privacy.
Couldn’t Rizful break that down if they were a honeypot?
I want it to trust it and use it but need more expert opinions on how privacy could be compromised with such a service.
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Yeah. Basically, a big design focus for Rizful is that the nodes are DISPOSABLE. You can quickly delete a node, and also quickly delete you Rizful account, whenever you wan.t (We do have safety checks however to make sure you don't delete a node with funds or channels... see here: https://rizful.com/docs/deleting-node
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Excellent response. Thank you.
VERY well done.
I will definitely use your tool.
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Rizful was created by the same team behind https://megalithic.me/ ... but to answer your question more directly -- if you are fully paranoid, running your own Lightning Node on your own hardware is always the best solution: https://docs.megalithic.me/category/should-i-run-a-lightning-node
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Thanks for the reply.
Your tool looks truly transformative. And I agree that there’s no substitute for running your own node.
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Friend @DarthCoin, I still appreciate your help. This solution can help us learn how to use Lightning nodes. But excuse my ignorance.
I'm learning about nodes. When I do the "Get Inbound" use, are the paid SATs kept in the channel, like in Phoenix?
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Yes, you can use "Get Inbound", and then send a payment to your Rizful node, and that payment will show up as your "outbound capacity" -- see here: https://rizful.com/docs/balances-and-capacities#outbound-capacity
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Thank you very much @rizful_com. I now understand the issue better. You are helping many people with this solution. Thanks again. I hope you soon activate the use of Testnet4. In this way we will be helping in the education and adoption of Bitcoin and especially Lightning Network.
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Thanks. Yeah. We are SUPER eager to deploy Testnet4 on Rizful. Should be early in 2025. See our description of how we think it can be used in education here: https://rizful.com/#the-case-for-educational-lightning-software
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Hello @rizful_com. I find the work you do and the effort to help the community impressive. I have read the documentation of the irritating nodes project and everything seems great to me.
Now I have a question, which maybe is in the documentation and I have overlooked it.
When I activate the node and open a channel, ARE MY FUNDS GUARDED BY YOU?
My question arises because I understand that it is a temporary and easy solution. But for us it could be a GREAT SOLUTION TO A GREAT PROBLEM such as having a place to stack SAT until we reach a sufficient stash that allows us to send those SAT through a swap to Onchain.
But when I teach people about this solution that you propose, teach everything well.
Thanks
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