Opinions on Phoenix Wallet?

[cygan]

seems to work now. i set the limit to 10k sats for the fees and it works as i imagined - last transaction with fee of 24 satoshis

[Kruw]

If you don't have a channel yet, you'll need to open at least one.

In Phoenix 2.X you always have only one channel open thanks to splicing.  It's a huge upgrade that I can't wait to come to other Lightning wallets.

[internetional]

I still have a few open channels in Phoenix Wallet (created years ago, when on-chain fees were much lower).
Those channels are almost empty, but have receiving liquidity. There's no point for Phoenix Wallet to close them, as it would only cost them transaction fees.

A closure of such channels may make sense for Phoenix. I guess, many Phoenix users have given up using their wallets with zero balance. And now Phoenix should have a lot of outbound liquidity in such channels. But Phoenix cannot use it, because other sides of all those channels are “leaves” of the LN, so they don’t route transfers. The further, the more Phoenix’ money are locked in such channels. There must be a moment when Phoenix cannot afford too lock as much money. At that moment, the channels will be closed.

It’s better for them to close those channels when onchain fees are not too high. But the more popular Bitcoin becomes, the more people want to make transactions. So, the probability of small fees are not very high in the future. Phoenix must decide soon, what to do with such channels.   

[NotATether]

Phoenix is also mobile-only.

I get that people are going to be tipping more with their phones, but why are the vast majority of lightning wallets either mobile apps or browser extensions?

Is there no incentive to make desktop applications for it like there is for Nostr?

Although having said that, most lightning wallets are centralized so I guess that doesn't really matter.

[LoyceV]

A closure of such channels may make sense for Phoenix.

You're right, my reasoning was wrong. Most of the funds are locked on Phoenix' end of the channel, and they locked even more than I deposited. Makes me wonder how profitable this is for them: it looks like they're just HODLing their funds in open channels, but they can't earn much unless people send and receive many transactions.

[dkbit98]

I get that people are going to be tipping more with their phones, but why are the vast majority of lightning wallets either mobile apps or browser extensions?

There is a difference if you are you talking about custodial or non-custodial LN wallets.
I know only one or two desktop wallets that supports Lightning Network, but developers are probably thinking that most people would more likely spend LN in coffee shops and similar places using their phones.

[Wind_FURY]

A closure of such channels may make sense for Phoenix.

You're right, my reasoning was wrong. Most of the funds are locked on Phoenix' end of the channel, and they locked even more than I deposited. Makes me wonder how profitable this is for them: it looks like they're just HODLing their funds in open channels, but they can't earn much unless people send and receive many transactions.

But because Phoenix is building an app that wants to give its users a good UX when using the Lightning Network, then they need to accept the opportunity-cost and boot-strap the the network with liquidity from their own wallet. They may currently not earn much today, but given the need for layered privacy and low fees for small transactions, it could help increase the demand for payment channels.