Screw this,
my lightning node sucks.
I suspect I'm missing out a ton of routing because I'm running a tor node. Currently, my node has a capacity of 2.55 BTC with 47 channels, but I'm barely seeing any activity. According to
lnrouter.app my average channel response time is 2.4 sec and my node response time 0.6. That's far from impressive...
If I'm going to run a lightning node, I might as well do it properly. I'm thinking a new baremetal server with a mini atx motherboard, a ryzen 5 processor, 16 GB ram and 2x 2TB SSD (for a RAID setup). After that, mitigate my node to this new dedicated server, running a RaspiBolt clearnet node.
With a new setup like this, I'm ready to add enough funds to build a node with 10+ BTC capacity and 100+ channels.
Ok, let's do this. Time to go shopping.
I personally have never been a big fan of raspberry pi as the main brain for bitcoind and lnd.
When i went down this path, i knew it was going to be on a bare metal computer and not a raspberry pi or similar. I also wanted to build, install and configure everything from scratch to really understand how things work "under the hood" and why it is done that way.
I ended up with the following hardware spec, most were just laying around... collecting dust...
LN Node Type: ClearNet (8DegreesWO)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz
Corsair 16GB DDR4
Gigabyte ITX Board (Small Form Factor)
3 x 1TB Samsung PRO SSD (2 Drives in RAID1 with 1 Spare (Not connected Still in a Box))
Corsair 550WATT PS
APC 750VA Smart UPS
Software: CentOS/bitcoind/lnd
It may be overkill, but I think i have speed/redundancy and reliability covered...
The most important reason of having a ClearNet Node, in my opinion is, both TOR and ClearNet Nodes can open a channel to you at any time. Where as, if you are a TOR node, only another TOR node can initiate a new channel.
Some of the biggest nodes are TOR. This isn't the reason you are "missing out"
LN by nature isn't transparent, so we are never sure who is routing what, how or where. You will only ever see what comes in and out, never the origin or destination, so who you connect to makes a huge difference.
You need to really think about where to position yourself in the grand scheme of things. If you think you are going to compete with the big boys then you are going to need more than 270,000,000 SAT.
I also noticed you are primarily connected to the big LN Nodes. You need to step back and see the bigger picture, why would they route through you? when they can just go direct to each other, using their existing channels.
You need to visualize how the SATS will flow... Using the channels you have opened now, Do you think it will go from "BCash_Is_Trash -> YOU -> Kraken"?, "BCash_Is_Trash -> Kraken" is more likely how the SAT will flow.
You need to have a plan and strategy that make sense, not just open random channels with anyone. (BTW why do you have two channels with Kraken)
From my experience, it doesn't matter how balance each individual channels are, what matter most is how balance your overall LN node is.
The ratio I used is outbound:inbound. Try aim for 1:1 to 1.3:1. That means 270,000,000, have Outbound of 135,000,000 and inbound of 135,000,000 for a 1:1 etc....
I made some mistakes early in the LN games, almost threw in the towel, but have soldiered on and am now happy with where I am.
Been online 18th September 2021 (204 days)
Uptime: 99%
LN Node Size: 430,618,597 SAT (4.3BTC)
Routing Stats
Total Amount: 356,586,094 SAT (3.5BTC)
Total Transactions: 1,803
Total Fees: ###,### SATS
Channel Stats
Opened: 114
Closed: 56
I still get spikes in routing. Not a smooth daily consistency that you would expect. Some days you get ZERO routes. Other days you get 50+.
Also, if you are keeping this node active, I've got a spare 6M SATs i can open up to you with.
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