- Will my coins be tied up while a channel is open?
Any coins you use to fund the channel with and that you receive while the channel is still open will be "locked" to that channel. However you can still pay other people by routing payments through other open payment channels that people have with each other, hence it is called the Lightning
Network.
- How many coins will I need to have? the more the better?
You can have 0 coins and have the other person in the channel fund the channel. This means that they are paying you, and if you have to pay them, you can only do so after they have paid you.
- How will users find my node?
- How will they decide to use my node or not?
There is a peer discovery mechanism described here:
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/blob/master/07-routing-gossip.md- If I'm the only node in my area, are my chances of being used higher?
Peer selection is done by IP address and presumably uptime just like how Bitcoin peer selection is done. Physical location does not matter.
- How will fees actually be calculated?
Fees are only used for HTLCs for routing payments. IIRC they are negotiated by the nodes participating in the routing of a payment and are set by the nodes themselves
- If nodes set their own fees, will it be a race to the bottom (fee-wise) for competing nodes?
Probably.