Electrum Lightning Network walkthrough

[satscraper]

-snip-
Thanks, that helped. Now  I have the choice between two options one of which is Remote Node ID and this is exactly  what I would like to use. But I'd like to have channel exclusively between two wallets I own, no middle-position node in between. Is that possible or the only way for me  to have my wallets LN-connected  is to establish connection of each of two wallets to one and the same  known peer?

Those two are the only option if "Trampoline Routing" is enabled.
You can customize the remote node once you've disabled the said feature in the settings.

However, I haven't succeeded yet with creating a channel between two Electrum wallets.
You can try though - by providing each other's 'Lightning Node ID' as the "Remote Node ID" (Wallet->Information) followed by the IP address and port.
eg: 02d50fdf1806b54aee46a0ed8c6d8512bee87e88e25029f3384a983c43c5d6a16c@111.111.111.111:9735
But like I've said, it never worked at my end.

I have spent two days trying to stitch directly my two Electrum clients by opening LN channel and all  my attempts have ended with CanceledError(). My both electrum clients were online showing fully sync LN graph.   The format for remote node ID had been properly chosen.

The communication  between two of my clients  was  established right off the bat after opening separate channels for each client with the same public LN node ("endurance" in my case).

Probably I should give up all further attempts to make direct LN channel between   my Electrum wallets.   

[nc50lc]

-snip-
Probably I should give up all further attempts to make direct LN channel between   my Electrum wallets.  >:( 

Same here like I've mentioned, that confirmed that I'm not the only one having trouble establishing a channel between two Electrum. :)

Try to post a new issue on Electrum's Github Repository: github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues
Maybe the Devs have a workaround. But first, use 'search' to look for similar issues .

[FatFork]

<bump>

This topic deserves to be at the top.

[NotATether]

So I get that you need to make a backup of the wallet every time you open a channel. But are these backups encrypted?

In older versions of Electrum, at least in 4.0.9, the backup files created using "Save Backup" are not encrypted.

[nc50lc]

So I get that you need to make a backup of the wallet every time you open a channel. But are these backups encrypted?
-snip-

Those are just "channel backups" which doesn't contain the wallet itself.
I believe it's encrypted by the wallet's xpub (CMIIAW) and it can't be imported to other wallets due to failure in decryption.

For the save backup, it'll be the same as the wallet. If it's encrypted, the backup will be encrypted.

[moejoejay]

Same here like I've mentioned, that confirmed that I'm not the only one having trouble establishing a channel between two Electrum.

Im not really a pro but i got this working on testnet ( not main) .

What ive had did, i playing around with settings the trampoline server first then switched off and add some other peers to.

Then i made some spends to the testnet Starblocks: https://starblocks.acinq.co

Then i had the ability to spend and recieve ( even without an invoice ) between 2 testnet wallet without  any problems.

may that helps

best regards 

[nc50lc]

Same here like I've mentioned, that confirmed that I'm not the only one having trouble establishing a channel between two Electrum.

Then i had the ability to spend and recieve ( even without an invoice ) between 2 testnet wallet without  any problems.

The issue was opening a channel between two Electrum wallets (e.g. "Electrum wallet 1" as your Electrum wallet, "Electrum wallet 2" as remote node).
Means that "Electrum wallet 1" should be able to open a channel by using "Electrum wallet 2" 's nodeid (and IP).

There hasn't been any issue with sending/receiving through lightning between two Electrum wallets as long there's enough channel capacity.

[moejoejay]

The issue was opening a channel between two Electrum wallets (e.g. "Electrum wallet 1" as your Electrum wallet, "Electrum wallet 2" as remote node).
Means that "Electrum wallet 1" should be able to open a channel by using "Electrum wallet 2" 's nodeid (and IP).

Ok than i missunderstood this, u mean the direct connection between 2 wallets with the same ln node or.

I tried this out with an same endurance Node on both (local/remote) sides.
Works flawless
but may u mean anything else


best regards


 

[nc50lc]

The issue was opening a channel between two Electrum wallets (e.g. "Electrum wallet 1" as your Electrum wallet, "Electrum wallet 2" as remote node).
Means that "Electrum wallet 1" should be able to open a channel by using "Electrum wallet 2" 's nodeid (and IP).

Ok than i missunderstood this, u mean the direct connection between 2 wallets with the same ln node or.

I tried this out with an same endurance Node on both (local/remote) sides.
Works flawless
but may u mean anything else

No, if you follow the previous conversation, it'll point you to the quoted reply in the post at the top of this page.
It's all about direct connection between two Electrum, so there'll be no other node like "endurance" in between.

If endurance node is involved, it's now: between Electrum1 and endurance; and, between Electrum2 and endurance

This reply:

-snip-
Thanks, that helped. Now  I have the choice between two options one of which is Remote Node ID and this is exactly  what I would like to use. But I'd like to have channel exclusively between two wallets I own, no middle-position node in between. Is that possible or the only way for me  to have my wallets LN-connected  is to establish connection of each of two wallets to one and the same  known peer?

As you can see, what you've tried is always been possible and the "only way" if direct connection wont work.
What he want is a direct channel between his two Electrum wallets, which doesn't work.

[NotATether]

I know its possible to run Electrum as a daemon and as a GUI on the same machine simultaneously - I already tried that a while ago.

I'm thinking of setting up a watchtower on the same machine (so I don't have to rent a box for that) so I don't have to worry about keeping Electrum open all the time.

Anyone here tried doing that before?

[Saint-loup]

Go to the 'Send' tab and paste your invoice. 'Description' field will be automatically filled since this information is usually provided in the invoice. Note that you will not be able to send all of your coins. Each channel must maintain a reserve for its closure fees. You can see how much you can send from each channel by going to the 'Channels' tab, right-clicking on a channel and selecting 'Details...'. You cannot send from multiple channels at once.

Does anyone know if there is currently a convenient way to choose which channel you want to be used to send a LN transaction, when you have several channels opened, without having to freeze all the other channels during the transaction please? Same question when you need to receive a payment through a generated invoice : is there a way to receive the payment on a specific channel without freezing all the other channels till you receive the transaction?

[BlackHatCoiner]

Does anyone know if there is currently a convenient way to choose which channel you want to be used to send a LN transaction, when you have several channels opened, without having to freeze all the other channels during the transaction please?

Most wallet software will choose the cheapest path, which is usually the shortest one. What do you want to accomplish? I don't find it reasonable to want your transaction to be charged higher. I could think of a privacy-related reason, but even that is invalid, especially when you receive, because you reveal your public key in BOL11 invoice.

[Saint-loup]

Does anyone know if there is currently a convenient way to choose which channel you want to be used to send a LN transaction, when you have several channels opened, without having to freeze all the other channels during the transaction please?

Most wallet software will choose the cheapest path, which is usually the shortest one. What do you want to accomplish? I don't find it reasonable to want your transaction to be charged higher. I could think of a privacy-related reason, but even that is invalid, especially when you receive, because you reveal your public key in BOL11 invoice.

No it's not a matter of privacy or of datas shown in the BOLT11 invoice. I don't want to accomplish anything special actually, I just want to be able to do that because I have different channels using different trampoline nodes, and I want to be able to decide which trampoline node I want to use because some of them seem to work more efficiently than other. In addition I also want to do that to be able to manage the receiving/sending capacity of my different channels. If I need to increase the receiving capacity of one channel, I want to be able to select it to send my next payment, same thing for a channel with a low sending capacity.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I want to be able to decide which trampoline node I want to use because some of them seem to work more efficiently than other.

By more efficiently, you mean faster?

If I need to increase the receiving capacity of one channel, I want to be able to select it to send my next payment, same thing for a channel with a low sending capacity.

I see. Unfortunately, no. It isn't possible from any user interfaces, as far as my lightning software experience goes. That's rather a specialized setting, only accessible if you dive into the source code. If you don't do that, which I presume you won't, your best course is to complete the payment using any channel and rebalance afterwards using a plugin. In both C-Lightning and LND, there is such plugin[1][2], but I'm not sure about Electrum.

[1] https://github.com/lightningd/plugins/tree/master/rebalance
[2] https://github.com/C-Otto/rebalance-lnd

[nc50lc]

-snip-

Does anyone know if there is currently a convenient way to choose which channel you want to be used to send a LN transaction, when you have several channels opened, without having to freeze all the other channels during the transaction please? Same question when you need to receive a payment through a generated invoice : is there a way to receive the payment on a specific channel without freezing all the other channels till you receive the transaction?

Freeze is the only way to accomplish that unfortunately.

You can utilize rebalance to reduce a channel's inbound capacity by sending your other channel's amount to it so that it can't be used to receive until it gains inbound capacity again.
Selecting two channels using CTRL-click will enable the grayed-out "Rebalance" button.
You can also setup channels to Electrum's trampoline nodes and others with normal nodes so whenever you disable "Use trampoline routing", your channels with trampoline nodes will have their send capacity frozen.
But those are more inconvenient than just freezing the channel's inbound/outbound capacity.

[internetional]

Yesterday I opened my first channel via Electrum. For the node to which I could open the channel, the default option was trampoline hodlisterco. I decided not to change anything for the first time, and opened a channel to it. But this node is offline for already more than 24 hours. So I cannot use my money.

Is this a usual status for this node? Is it worth waiting, or it's time to force-close the channel and to open another one to another, non-default node?

[nc50lc]

Is it offline or just "Disconnected" in your channel status?
Because it's available at my end (mainnet).

Recent screenshot (just now):

-snip-
Is this a usual status for this node? Is it worth waiting, or it's time to force-close the channel and to open another one to another, non-default node?

Probably not, those are hand-picked by the devs, one thing for being active Lightning nodes.

[internetional]

Is it offline or just "Disconnected" in your channel status?

You are right, it was disconnected. Doesn't "Disconnected" mean offline?

Today the status of the channel is "Open". I checked several times, everything is okay. I sent some transfers, they were routed quickly.

I don't understand one more thing. My outbound liquidity initially was around 1.2 M Sat, but when I tried to send more than 500 K, I got an error like this:

HTLC value sum (sum of pending htlcs: 0.0 sat plus new htlc: 580239.726 sat) would exceed max allowed: 577956.0 sat

. So, I needed 3 transfers to send 1.2 M Sat. Why?

[nc50lc]

Is it offline or just "Disconnected" in your channel status?

You are right, it was disconnected. Doesn't "Disconnected" mean offline?

Not all the time, it can also be interpreted as your lightning node (electrum client) can't establish connection to the other party.
Most of the time, you'll just have to wait for a few minutes for the status to switch to "OPEN" if there nothing wring with the connection.

I don't understand one more thing. My outbound liquidity initially was around 1.2 M Sat, but when I tried to send more than 500 K, I got an error like this:

HTLC value sum (sum of pending htlcs: 0.0 sat plus new htlc: 580239.726 sat) would exceed max allowed: 577956.0 sat

. So, I needed 3 transfers to send 1.2 M Sat. Why?

I haven't sent amount higher that that with lightning so I haven't experienced it, but I believe it's a config of your channel set by the remote node:

• github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/lnchannel.py#L762
• github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/lnchannel.py#L961-L966

[alexrossi]

If I have a headless watchtower (electrum on a linux server), with what command I can check what channels is currently monitoring?

with "python3 run_electrum get_watchtower_ctn" I'm asked the channel endpoint, and I also think is a client related command (it asks to have an active wallet)



Also:

 python3 run_electrum get_ssl_domain
Supplied CA Not Found in Trusted CA Store.

Is normal that with a standard letsencrypt cert I always get this output, even if the watchtower is currently running?