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I don’t know if anyone remembers, but back in 2020-1, there was huge momentum with self-ran LND nodes, hosted over Umbrel when they initially launched. There were other node-in-one services around as well, like MyNode and a bunch of other ones, all equally good. We were all tinkering and opening channels with each other, there was real buzz and excitement around it. It felt like what ordinals was like a few months ago.
Then, it allegedly turned out LND was not on our side, and had the WEF pulling strings, despite their vehement denial. So, like any responsible pleb, I closed all my channels, removed LND and the whole stack of apps, and gave them the middle finger.
But the problem remained. How to use lightning? I tried running CLN (used to be c-lightning), but back then they did not have any implementation with the node services, so unless you were to spin up your own node and build every piece software from scratch from source, you simply had no choice but to go with wallets like Phoenix. I had never opened github in my life, much less interface with command lines nor compiled anything from source. That was a no-go. So I ran to Phoenix.
Phoenix was not ideal, but at least it was non-custodial. Besides, you did not have to manage channels, a win-win according to my lazy self. ACINQ, the company that runs Eclair and Phoenix, seemed to be advancing the right tech, like incorporating splicing and announcing their intention to have BOLT12, something LND is still dragging their feet about today. CLN eventually launched a GUI app for the node-in-one services. And it looks great, but to this date, it doesn’t have a one-click backup option, which is why I didn’t feel safe putting my corn on there. So yeah, I got really comfortable and complacent.
Well, we all know what happened next. First, Wallet of Satoshi, then Phoenix voluntarily left the US, while all the mixing services got shut down. And this is just the first salvo. Things are only going to get more draconian from here, or has the potential to be. They are coming for everything they can put their chokehold on, including things that need centralized servers like LNURL. It was naive to think we could rely on 3rd party-ran lightning nodes, and the bankers would just take it sitting down.
There is no choice left. Much like the Fellowship of the Ring, which unsuccessfully tried the path South to Rohan, then was equally foiled over the frigid Pass of Caradhras, there was only one option left: The Mines of Linux and the creatures hiding beneath the shadows of the Command Line Interface (CLI).
Below I will list a compilation of everything you will need to build a node from scratch, compile most everything from source, with step by step instructions from the many wonderful developers and shadowy supercoders out there. I am not saying that any competent monkey could do it, but it's close enough. Remember, Gandalf is victorious, sort of. And once your are done, you can start using BOLT12 right away; it has been fantastic to receive my mining rewards over BOLT 12. So if you are mining with Ocean, you have extra incentives.
Hardware:
Raspberry Pi projects like RaspiBlitz and RaspiBolt are great, but the Pi feels barely powerful enough anymore to run a node. With an all-in budget of $200-$300, you can have something much more powerful.
- Lenovo ThinkCentre M910q. $100-$200. I got a Quad Core i5-6500T. 32GB DDR4 RAM for $152, free shipping. Not bad.
- 2TB NVMe M.2. You can snatch a decent one for $120.
Software:
Even though node services like Start9 and Umbrel are great (and I continue to use them), they still constitute chokepoints that can become vulnerabilities. Not to mention, the only way I know of to make a reliable backup of the Core Lightning (CLN) node, is with a natively-ran instance over command line interface. As I mentioned above, The Mines of Linux is the only path forward.
The core of it is based on the video tutorials from @MinistryofNodes and @402PaymentRequired. Make sure to follow them and zap some sats their way!
When it comes to installing everything as someone non-technical, I always get a headache when I have to look at written instructions. That is why almost all the tutorials here are VIDEO tutorials, so you can literally follow step by step. There will still be some bumps here and there, since the OS they are working on probably has different software installed, which means you might run into dependency issues, but these are usually minor hiccups that are easily remedied.
1. Linux. I used Ubuntu, though other distributions should also work: Github, Website, Tutorial
2. Bitcoin Core: Github, Website, Tutorial
3. I seriously considered these 2 choices for indexer. If you only use Sparrow wallet, Fulcrum might be better. But I tried to connect other wallets like Electrum and Green Wallet to Fulcrum and it did not work, so if you use many wallets, maybe Electrs is the way to go. Fulcrum does seem to be faster though. Check out the side by side Comparison.
- Electrs: Github, Tutorial
- Fulcrum: Github, Tutorial (Bonus: Tor access is not setup in the tutorial. You can get the instructions from Raspibolt’s site)
4. Mempool Explorer: Github, Website, Tutorial (Docker)
There are a couple different ways to install the Mempool explorer. Docker is probably the best and easiest one from the “Advanced Installation Methods.” However, @MinistryofNodes’s tutorial does not cover how to make it accessible over TOR. I spent many nights trying to figure it out to no avail, so if anyone knows how to enable TOR access over docker, please feel free to let me know. In the end, I resorted once again to Raspibolt’s amazing written instructions, and opted for the full manual installation.
5. Core Lightning: Github, Website, Tutorial, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
These tutorials should get your up and running and a CLN node, Ride the Lightning for GUI node management, and Zeus for mobile wallet.
The last thing you need is to install CLBOSS, the automated node channel manager, so you won’t have to bother balancing channels or fussing around with it. CLBOSS’s github page comes with installation instructions, but they are confusing as hell, and there isn’t a single video tutorial. Thus, it took me hours, for something that should take minutes.
This is the key: After you install all the dependencies, download the source code and unzip it, you need to first execute: “autoreconf -i”. Then run “./configure && make && sudo make install”. Without the autoreconf command it will just say the config file is missing. For some reason the latest release doesn’t come with a compiled installer, only the source code.
Also, before being able to generate bolt12 static offers, you will need to enable it by adding “experimental-offers” in the config file.
That’s it! If anyone gives this a try, let us know how it goes!
If you feel like sending some sats:
BOLT12 offer: lno1pgz57cm9v9hpvggrmyfdc8dhngwxy29le6tk2tvkhr8enkv7mwfxzw5ejuptyrfdpnuq
