The Lightning Network FAQ

[darkv0rt3x]

Oh and on another note: I am not familiar with Lightning too much, how would developer commands protect you in a worst-case scenario?

Instead of the wallet do stuff on its own, you would be able to issue commands to close channels and specify the onchain address where you wanted your local balance "to land". I think this was what he meant!

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[n0nce]

Thanks for the input. Command line options (breez) sound good as a nice last resort. I just installed and don't get any connection, so it's neither allowing me to generate a lightning invoice, nor an on-chain address.
Especiall the latter seems very weird to me - the error notification says "Not able to obtain Bitcoin address from Breez-Server. Please check your Internet-connection". - Are they storing the keys online, or why would you need a connection to show an onchain public address?

The on-chain address feature utilizes the https://boltz.exchange/ instant exchanger and performs a submarine swap to give you Lightning funds trustlessly.
I suspect Boltz and / or Breez may be having some issues with opening channels at reasonable prices at the moment due to mempool congestion. But I don't have any more insight into this myself right now.

Oh and on another note: I am not familiar with Lightning too much, how would developer commands protect you in a worst-case scenario?

Instead of the wallet do stuff on its own, you would be able to issue commands to close channels and specify the onchain address where you wanted your local balance "to land". I think this was what he meant!

Exactly. I'm not sure for instance, if any 'emergency' functionality exists (since I don't see any in the GUI) and how good it is (since I can't simulate it) to help me in an edge case. Having developer commands just gives me the peace of mind that I can interact with the built-in LND node directly and solve such issues.

[darkv0rt3x]

Wallet of Satoshi launches Lightning Point of Sale feature

Seems nice feature and very handy.
https://stacker.news/items/176409
https://twitter.com/walletofsatoshi/status/1655451096117284867

[Kryptowerk]

Wallet of Satoshi launches Lightning Point of Sale feature

Seems nice feature and very handy.
https://stacker.news/items/176409
https://twitter.com/walletofsatoshi/status/1655451096117284867

That's a pretty sexy feature. What's up with that NFC transaction, never seen something like that for lightning before.
Does it immediatelly charge the amount or is there still confirmation required from the one sending the sats?

[darkv0rt3x]

Wallet of Satoshi launches Lightning Point of Sale feature

Seems nice feature and very handy.
https://stacker.news/items/176409
https://twitter.com/walletofsatoshi/status/1655451096117284867

That's a pretty sexy feature. What's up with that NFC transaction, never seen something like that for lightning before.
Does it immediatelly charge the amount or is there still confirmation required from the one sending the sats?

I have no idea but either way I like the idea and how simple it seems to be! The LN still needs a lot of work to become user friendly but these small steps are for sure in the right path! It seemed quite clean and simple the few examples in the video.

[n0nce]

I like the idea and how simple it seems to be! The LN still needs a lot of work to become user friendly but these small steps are for sure in the right path! It seemed quite clean and simple the few examples in the video.

Regarding user-friendliness for LN, I just read the other day that Foundation Devices published a podcast episode with a Breez developer. I've yet to listen to it myself, but I'm interested to know what they talked about, since I'm obviously both a Passport and Breez user myself..

EP #9 – Making self-custodial Lightning easier w/ Ivan from Breez

If it’s seemed too daunting to use Lightning without sacrificing custody of your Bitcoin, what Breez is building might be just the solution you need. On this week’s episode we sit down with Ivan from Breez to talk about the future of self-custodial Lightning and how we can beat fiat at it’s own game.

[darkv0rt3x]

I like the idea and how simple it seems to be! The LN still needs a lot of work to become user friendly but these small steps are for sure in the right path! It seemed quite clean and simple the few examples in the video.

Regarding user-friendliness for LN, I just read the other day that Foundation Devices published a podcast episode with a Breez developer. I've yet to listen to it myself, but I'm interested to know what they talked about, since I'm obviously both a Passport and Breez user myself..

EP #9 – Making self-custodial Lightning easier w/ Ivan from Breez

If it’s seemed too daunting to use Lightning without sacrificing custody of your Bitcoin, what Breez is building might be just the solution you need. On this week’s episode we sit down with Ivan from Breez to talk about the future of self-custodial Lightning and how we can beat fiat at it’s own game.

Going to listen that podcast right now myself! After dinner and while there is some silence at home (wife and daughter went out for church stuff xD)...

[n0nce]

Wallets

Which wallet would be the best for me?

There are quite a few interesting options for different kinds of users.

No-coiners: Strike

Bitcoin newbies: BlueWallet

Regular users: Phoenix Wallet, Breez Wallet, Blixt Wallet

Advanced users: run your own node

Update: BlueWallet Lightning functionality (custodial LND hub) is dead!
https://bluewallet.io/sunsetting-lndhub/

[darkv0rt3x]

I just found a nice list of links to help to solve problems of liquidity...
I know a few of them but not all. Will be handy to me...

It is a post in Medium site:
https://medium.com/@rajsaraogi/lightning-network-liquidity-3ca09000565

[darkv0rt3x]

Rusty Russel posted yesterday a minor release to CLN, fixing some bugs that couldn't wait for the major release 23.08. This version was called v25.05.1 and brings the following bug fixes:

    Fixed crash (memory corruption!) in listtransactions (openingd: work harder to intuit OPT_SCID_ALIAS. #6304)
    Don't crash on gossip store deletion fail (gossipd: don't fail on gossip deletion #6297)
    Fix incompatibility with LND which prevented us opening private channels (openingd: work harder to intuit OPT_SCID_ALIAS. #6304)
    Fixed crash in dual-funding. (CI: restore dual-funding tests. #6273)

Sauce

[darkv0rt3x]

Anyone using the plugin called Circular to rebalance channels in Core Lightning v23.0.5??? I think it might be broken after the API changes in Core Lightning.
Wanted to know if anyone can still use this plugin.

Edited;
Someone on Github, in Circular repository wrote a patch that apparently fixes the issues due to the breaking changes of Core Lightning API, but the coder didn't open a PR with his changes, so someone took the liberty to  use his code, include the patch and open a PR, crediting him all the reputation for the patch. PR is now waiting for revision.
If anyone uses it or woul like to try the plugin to rebalance channels, and have knwoledge in Go programming language, maybe can give it a try and maybe a review and check if anything is missing.

Original repository
https://github.com/giovannizotta/circular

Issue
https://github.com/giovannizotta/circular/issues/17

PR
https://github.com/giovannizotta/circular/pull/18

[n0nce]

Anyone using the plugin called Circular to rebalance channels in Core Lightning v23.0.5??? I think it might be broken after the API changes in Core Lightning.
Wanted to know if anyone can still use this plugin.

I haven't, but from the GitHub description it looks basically identical to the rebalance plugin. You still need to manually specify input and output channels, for instance.
What's the benefit over rebalance?

[darkv0rt3x]

Anyone using the plugin called Circular to rebalance channels in Core Lightning v23.0.5??? I think it might be broken after the API changes in Core Lightning.
Wanted to know if anyone can still use this plugin.

I haven't, but from the GitHub description it looks basically identical to the rebalance plugin. You still need to manually specify input and output channels, for instance.
What's the benefit over rebalance?

I like it more only in the sense that it shows you a more user-friendly info about what is going on during a rebalance! And from other users, specifically from one of Boltz owner, it seems to do a better job finding routes for our rebalances.

For instance, this is part of the output it shows you from logs while attempting to rebalance:

rebalance.go:57 Run: ===================== ATTEMPT 1 =====================
 40516 2023-06-14T05:58:43.347Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: params.go:48 validateLiquidityParameters: validating liquidity parameters
 40517 2023-06-14T05:58:43.348Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: params.go:50 validateLiquidityParameters: refreshing in and out channels
 40518 2023-06-14T05:58:43.348Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: params.go:75 validateLiquidityParameters: liquidity parameters validated
 40519 2023-06-14T05:58:43.349Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: route.go:41 tryRoute: generating route
 40520 2023-06-14T05:58:43.354Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: route.go:19 getRoute: looking for a route from Boltz to SCP-096
 40521 2023-06-14T05:58:43.403Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: time.go:10 TimeTrack: rebalance.getRoute took 64.837ms
 40522 2023-06-14T05:58:43.407Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: route.go:53 tryRoute: Route from: Boltz to: SCP-096
 40523 2023-06-14T05:58:43.407Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Amount: 300000
 40524 2023-06-14T05:58:43.408Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Fee: 2267msat
 40525 2023-06-14T05:58:43.408Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Fee PPM: 7
 40526 2023-06-14T05:58:43.408Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Hops: 4
 40527 2023-06-14T05:58:43.408Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Hop  1:                           Crypt04n4rkMoV, fee:    0.000, ppm:     0, scid: 778301x567x0, delay: 408
 40528 2023-06-14T05:58:43.408Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Hop  2:                                    Boltz, fee:    0.301, ppm:     1, scid: 748535x568x1, delay: 328
 40529 2023-06-14T05:58:43.409Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Hop  3:                         marburg.ddns.net, fee:    0.166, ppm:     0, scid: 774975x2457x1, delay: 288
 40530 2023-06-14T05:58:43.409Z DEBUG   plugin-circular: Hop  4:                                  SCP-096, fee:    1.800, ppm:     6, scid: 711640x1428x1, delay: 144

The owner did the update to the plugin yesterday and I have already used it! I like this more than the original rebalance!
And I think you can do other things like push and pull liquidity to/from your channels but I never tried it!

[cygan]

with 0.9.0 a new eclair version has been released today. among others there are the following highlights in this release:

• improvements against various forms of dos attacks
• more plugin hooks and rpcs
• groundwork for dual funding, splicing and bolt 12

https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/blob/master/docs/release-notes/eclair-v0.9.0.md

[Bittothefuture]

I would recommend Blink (formerly BItcoinBeachWallet) available for ios and android and app gallery  https://www.blink.sv/

[dkbit98]

I would recommend Blink (formerly BItcoinBeachWallet) available for ios and android and app gallery  https://www.blink.sv/

It says that Blink is unavailable some countries app stores, including the US  
I like that they are supporting Stablesats, USD equivalent that is much better way of holding some kind of stablecoins but without having to deal with shitcoins.
So far I didn't try it but I might give it a go to see how it works, but if I understand correctly this is custodial LN wallet.

[cygan]

a new version of the blixt wallet has now been released. the new 0.6.8 version includes some fixes as well as the new feature called speedloader
the complete changelog and the download files can be found at the github link below the quote:

Speedloader syncs the wallet's channel database ("channel graph") on startup. This is important for payment pathfinding and will make sure you have an up-to-date database.

https://github.com/hsjoberg/blixt-wallet/releases/tag/v0.6.8

[Bittothefuture]

I would recommend Blink (formerly BItcoinBeachWallet) available for ios and android and app gallery  https://www.blink.sv/

It says that Blink is unavailable some countries app stores, including the US  
I like that they are supporting Stablesats, USD equivalent that is much better way of holding some kind of stablecoins but without having to deal with shitcoins.
So far I didn't try it but I might give it a go to see how it works, but if I understand correctly this is custodial LN wallet.

You are correct it's a custodial bitcoin ln wallet gaining popularity in latam. Not available in U.S due to Blink not operating (having a legal company set up in the U.S) regulation is not clear for them to want to hop in plus its costly and there are recent U.S companies shutting down like https://unbanked.com/unbanked-will-be-winding-down/ , so it appears the U.S might be losing some ground here.

[Wind_FURY]

OP, probably good to remove BlueWallet and add Mutiny.

What is Mutiny? It's the first self-custodial lightning wallet that runs on the web! Control your funds on an open standard that does not depend on Apple or Google app stores. No downloads are needed!

We've set out to solve the onboarding problem for Bitcoin no matter who you are, where you live, or what device you are using. And because funds are fully in your control, there's no need to provide identity to a regulated institution. This is what it looks like to make Bitcoin accessible to the 5 billion global internet users with access to a web browser.

https://blog.mutinywallet.com/mutiny-wallet-open-beta/

I haven't looked closely at all the details on how it actually works but a "self-custodial wallet that runs on the web" means you store your keys in your browser? Probably not a good idea for big amount of Bitcoin. Haha.

Although trade-offs taken by their developers does make it easier for new users and does help solve the onboarding problem.

[bayu7adi]

OP, probably good to remove BlueWallet and add Mutiny.

In my venture to explore the Lightning Network (LN), I opted for the seamless experience provided by BlueWallet. The transactions conducted were solely in BTC, amounting to a mere USD $0.1. The swiftness of these transactions was remarkable, accompanied by remarkably low fees. However, I find myself more inclined towards Bitcoin (segwit) due to familiarity.

For LN, it may be suitable for facilitating sales and purchases at various stores while also introducing the original Bitcoin, highlighting how it is perceived, what is observed, and so forth. As of now, there are no plans to uninstall the game here.