receiving lightning with electrum and transfer fees

[SteveElektro]

Advice needed: PS I am in Australia, advice needed about receiving lightning to electrum from online service (due to high wallet to wallet xfer fees on service i use to buy crypto)

I noticed coinspot are now charging .00048 btc ($37 AUD!) to transfer using main network to an outside btc wallet.
I set up an electrum personal wallet and thought I could transfer using lightning from Coinspot to electrum fast and cheap then use electrum to send to other wallets using main network and be able to set my own fee which from what I understand right now based on mempool is only $6USD btc should be enough for a fast enough transaction for me (ie around 10 minutes)

From what I can tell though I need to open channel in electrum and keep it online until lightning xfer completes. But what I'm confused about is that you seem to need to put money into your electrum wallet to use lightning. I've read up on it but cant find definitive info about my situation.

So I have a few questions:

1) Do I need to have a standing amount of btc in electrum when I will only use it to receive lightning transfers only? (all sending will be done using main BTC network not lightning)

2) how much do I need if so, and does it always need to stay above that level (will I need to keep topping up)

3) If I do have to have BTC in electrum wallet to receive lightning transfers, would that mean to get the initial  BTC into electrum I will need to use standard BTC network transfer? (and so pay coinspot $37 fee once at least to get started)

4) am I right in saying that setting my own fees for transfers from the electrum to private wallet using main network will prevent me paying huge .00048 xfer fees? Mempool seemed to suggest around $6USD in btc would likely take 10 minutes so I could manually set my fee there to mempool recommendation for ~10 minute xfer rather than .00048 BTC?

Or if I am wrong about all this is there another way to not pay so high for main network wallet transfer which coinspot are now charging (first transfer was .00005 ever since it's been .00048!!!  10x increase, seems like they charged me low first time to lure me in and have been stooging me ever since!)

I have read as much as I can about this but can't really find simple answers to these questions.  I did try to research myself but so far have only managed to maintain my current level of confusion on the matter!

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated because it currently seems to me that paying .00048 BTC to transfer to an external wallet every time apppears to be extortionate based on mempool.space data.

[Findingnemo]

So I have a few questions:

1) Do I need to have a standing amount of btc in electrum when I will only use it to receive lightning transfers only? (all sending will be done using main BTC network not lightning)

2) how much do I need if so, and does it always need to stay above that level (will I need to keep topping up)

3) If I do have to have BTC in electrum wallet to receive lightning transfers, would that mean to get the initial  BTC into electrum I will need to use standard BTC network transfer? (and so pay coinspot $37 fee once at least to get started)

4) am I right in saying that setting my own fees for transfers from the electrum to private wallet using main network will prevent me paying huge .00048 xfer fees? Mempool seemed to suggest around $6USD in btc would likely take 10 minutes so I could manually set my fee there to mempool recommendation for ~10 minute xfer rather than .00048 BTC?

1. You don't necessarily need to have a standing balance in your LN channel to receive funds via LN, the funds in your on-chain wallet can't be incorporated with LN unless you load it to your channel so both are separate things and the balance can be zero.

2. There is no fixed amount and the channel capacity is a combination of both total inbound and outbound which is nothing but the funds that you load initially while opening the channel. You can't receive more than your inbound capacity and if you want then you need to close the existing channel and open a new one with higher capacity.

3. To create LN you need BTC, so either you pay 37 dollars or buy from another source and funds the wallet then open LN.

4. Electrum allows customization of fees so you can set whatever fee you want if you are the sending party.


As far as I researched coinspot, the exchange you are talking about doesn't support LN deposits and withdrawals so LN doesn't come into the context of paying $37 or whatever fee they charge for withdrawal.

[bitmover]

I noticed coinspot are now charging .00048 btc ($37 AUD!) to transfer using main network to an outside btc wallet.

Can you withdrawal other coin, such as LTC?  LTC probably has a very small withdrawal fee is most exchanges.

You can withdrawal LTC to another exchange with lower fees, or convert LTC back to BTC using some swap tool such as exch.cx (which most users are using in this forum now)

You might save some money in fees..

[nc50lc]

From what I can tell though I need to open channel in electrum and keep it online until lightning xfer completes. But what I'm confused about is that you seem to need to put money into your electrum wallet to use lightning. I've read up on it but cant find definitive info about my situation.

That is correct, but opening a channel requires on-chain balance in Electrum that will be used to open your channel. (all "outbound capacity")
Last time I opened a channel in Electrum, the remote node set a minimum of at least 0.004BTC.

But take note that lightning and on-chain payments are separate; you can't pay a bitcoin address with lightning nor pay a lightning invoice onchain.
So, depending on your goal, this may not be the solution for you.

So I have a few questions:

1. For outstanding balance, No.
But your channel needs "inbound capacity" to be able to receive through lightning.
You can see that in the 'Channels' tab as the "can receive" note above it.

One way to gain inbound capacity is to utilize (reverse) "Submarine Swap" which you can access in 'Channels' tab's setting icon. (maintained by a third-party)
That will transfer your outbound capacity to your on-chain funds, by doing so, your channel will gain inbound capacity from the sent lightning funds.

2. N/A
3. N/A

4. Yes, you can set a different fee slider or even set a custom fee/fee rate of your choice, just enable "Edit fees manually" to have the freedom to manually edit fees.
You can find that option in the settings icon (upper-right) in "New Transaction" window after clicking "Pay...".