Series: Let’s create a routing LND node
- Part 1 - Preliminaries
- Part 2 - Finalising setup and funding
- Part 3 - Opening some channels
- Part 4 - Unsuccessful looping and rebalancing
- Part 5 - Some successes
- Part 6 - Opening more channels
- Part 7 - Probing routes
- Part 8 - Fees
- Part 9 - Loop costs
- Part 10 - Docker
- Part 11 - More failures
- Part 12 - Should I close some channels?
- Part 13 - Loop problems
- Part 14 - Waiting...
- Part 15 - Where are we now?
Supporting this series
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Where are we now?
Well, it’s been a couple weeks since I started this adventure. How has it gone?
It has not yet been a success.
Progress has been slower than I expected. I didn't think I’d be routing significant payments by now but I thought I’d be further along. I am routing a few payments but I’m only taking about 2sats per day in fees. Things have just been slow. But there has been progress - since starting, I’ve forwarded payments of ㋛12,861,573sats.
I thought balancing channels would be easier. I have two tools at my disposal here - move-balance and Loop Out. But after those first two weeks over half of my channels were still unbalanced. Fundamentally, I couldn’t balance those channels because there didn't seem to be enough outbound capacity on their side. If I try to build a circular route for 500,000sats from one channel out through other nodes and back through a different channel (which is what move-balance tries to do), all those nodes must be able to route 500,000sats. And it looks like the nodes on the other end of these channels couldn’t.
Similarly if I tried to Loop Out 500,000sats, the node on the other end of my channel must be able to route 500,000sats to the Loop swap server. And they often couldn’t do that either.
This can be a sporadic problem though, so I thought it would be worth waiting and retrying.
After a couple of weeks, I’ve succeeded in bringing a modicum of balance to most of my channels, and I’ve closed the ones where I just couldn’t. If it never forwarded any payments and I couldn’t move-balance to it or Loop Out of it, I closed it.
A couple of nodes did open channels with me, and I’ve tried to balance them. One was yalls.org, which was interesting to balance. I thought I’d try a different approach here. Since it was a large channel (at ㋛5,000,000) I thought I’d:
- Open another (full) channel with it,
- Use move-balance to move ㋛2,500,000 from the new channel to the empty channel,
- Close the channel I opened.
That would have two on-chain transactions (opening and closing the channel) instead of purely Lightning routing fees, but it would be roughly comparable to Loop Out and I was curious if I’d run into any new problems.
So I opened the channel:
$ lncli openchannel --local_amt 4200000 --node_key 03d06758583bb5154774a6eb221b1276c9e82d65bbaceca806d90e20c108f4b1c7
{
"funding_txid": "f17adbc9ff8fd66d44b57f04c87d0f3328364b9184a09ffcd9a32659ae6245ea"
}
(Yalls currently has a restriction that channels must be at least 4,200,000sats.)
After waiting for it to open, I could then use move-balance to move 2,500,000sats:
$ lntoolkit move-balance --from 635724429132103681 --to 635427561057812481 --amount 2500000 --max-fees-msat 30000000 --max-routes 1 --verbose
Which, in case you’re interested in such things, generated this route:
{
"payment_hash": "7+YeqKsob0TT3JIM6wquR3glEuaA4wfi6LY0HPNFnQI=",
"payment_hash_string": "efe61ea8ab286f44d3dc920ceb0aae47782512e680e307e2e8b6341cf3459d02",
"routes": [
{
"total_time_lock": 578378,
"total_fees": "6251",
"total_amt": "2506251",
"hops": [
{
"chan_id": "635724429132103681",
"chan_capacity": "4200000",
"amt_to_forward": "2500000",
"fee": "6251",
"expiry": 578338,
"amt_to_forward_msat": "2500000000",
"fee_msat": "6251000",
"pub_key": "03d06758583bb5154774a6eb221b1276c9e82d65bbaceca806d90e20c108f4b1c7"
},
{
"chan_id": "635427561057812481",
"chan_capacity": "5000000",
"amt_to_forward": "2500000",
"fee": "0",
"expiry": 578338,
"amt_to_forward_msat": "2500000000",
"fee_msat": "0",
"pub_key": "023c5b5667b16cd7fcca5591a8c0f47beb76c9405e16a4f2d6b42c7b9904a7f0e6"
}
],
"total_fees_msat": "6251000",
"total_amt_msat": "2506251000"
}
]
}
(Yalls charges a lot for routing!)
Then I closed that channel:
$ lncli closechannel f17adbc9ff8fd66d44b57f04c87d0f3328364b9184a09ffcd9a32659ae6245ea 1
{
"closing_txid": "709041ca31cab0cb72c68ea344fa137384c519638a7b5669bce3e14b3ce19291"
}
And there we go - a balanced channel with Yalls!
Review of channel strategy
I opened channels with a few strategies:
- ‘Destination’ nodes, where payments are likely to go
- Moneni’s NodeMatch
- A random smattering of non-central nodes with more than 20 channels but fewer than 50.
How are they doing?
‘Destination’ nodes: BitRefill, CoinGate, Lightning-Roulette, Loop’s swap server.
Not bad. All of these channels have been the source or destination for payments.
Moneni’s NodeMatch: powernode.io, rompert, LightningPowerUsers, satoshilabs.com, BitMEXResearch.
Again, not bad. Most haven’t forwarded as many payments as the destination nodes, but others like rompert are forwarding more.
Moneni’s NodeMatch, round 2: Sagittarius A, ACINQ, 1ML.com node ALPHA, LightningTo.Me, ln.BitSoapBox.com
Not well. The last three were culled because I found it impossible to balance those channels. ACINQ too was quite hard to balance but it succeeded in the end. There’s a few payments routed from the two remaining - Sagittarius A and ACINQ - but not much activity.
Random smattering: blackgold, VIX8, SLL, NSCasa, ln.taborsky.cz
Poorly. Only the first two survived the cull, and there’s been very little activity. I may close these.
Others: BonsaiSoftware, LN-Zone.com
Variable. BonsaiSoftware opened a channel with me and has routed a bunch of payments through it. LN-Zone.com opened a channel with me and... nothing. I’m not sure if this is my fault or not, or what I can do to help here.
In any case, my most popular inbound channel was rompert.com🔵 [631590265456623616], and my most popular outbound channel was Loop Out’s swap server [632366520641650689].
I’m considering closing any channels that have had zero activity and opening a bigger channel with rompert. Does that sound like a good idea?
Here’s the latest report with all the details:
OpinionatedGeek ⚡ - synced: ✅
Total Balance: ㋛47,550,550, Wallet: ㋛2,520,065 (㋛2,520,065 confirmed / ㋛0 unconfirmed / ㋛0 limbo)
Fees: ㋛67 this month, ㋛3 this week, ㋛0 today
Channels: 18 active, 0 inactive, 0 pending, containing: ㋛45,479,966 satoshi (㋛449,481 future commit fees)
Version: 0.6.1-beta commit=v0.6.1-beta-dirty
URI: 023c5b5667b16cd7fcca5591a8c0f47beb76c9405e16a4f2d6b42c7b9904a7f0e6@95.179.191.59:9735
Forwards:
Monthly: 59 forwards, ㋛12,861,573, fees: ㋛67
Weekly: 24 forwards, ㋛673,550, fees: ㋛3
Daily: 1 forwards, ㋛5,780, fees: ㋛0
Most Popular Channels:
In, with 14 forwards this month: rompert.com🔵 [631590265456623616]
Out, with 26 forwards this month: 021c97a90a411ff2b10d [632366520641650689]
Pending:
None.
Unbalanced - High:
None.
Unbalanced - Low:
None.
All Channels:
✅ 👪 Bitrefill.com: 634011390060199937 (Last update: 00:49 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 030c3f19d742ca294a55c00376b3b355c3c90d61c6b6b39554dbc7ac19b141c14f
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛4,000 + ㋛40/144
Forwards: (M) ㋛64,776 [2] / ㋛63,206 [6], (W) ㋛64,776 [2] / ㋛63,206 [6], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕] ㋛12,347,772 / ㋛4,402,502 [capacity: ㋛16,777,215]
✅ 👪 021c97a90a411ff2b10d: 632366520641650689 (Last update: 19:23 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 021c97a90a411ff2b10dc2a8e32de2f29d2fa49d41bfbb52bd416e460db0747d0d
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛928,951 [1] / ㋛4,626,941 [26], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛106,342 [3], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛8,395,419 / ㋛8,350,462 [capacity: ㋛16,777,215]
✅ 👪 LIGHTNING-CASINO.COM: 634877805264961537 (Last update: 20:32 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02725e5abcbf5550fc29e6b19706a1377f25d2b1502684f9be9965b6deac167520
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕] ㋛6,011,460 / ㋛1,961,599 [capacity: ㋛8,000,000]
✅ 👪 OpenNode: 634859113565847553 (Last update: 11:54 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03abf6f44c355dec0d5aa155bdbdd6e0c8fefe318eff402de65c6eb2e1be55dc3e
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕] ㋛5,999,274 / ㋛1,969,395 [capacity: ㋛8,000,000]
✅ 👪 BonsaiSoftware: 634235690383900673 (Last update: 00:22 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02a5fa844d310f582d209fe649352b225440b8a54e77361f229bb92ee263c87e6f
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛100/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛3,987,114 [10] / ㋛2,890 [1], (W) ㋛63,206 [6] / ㋛2,890 [1], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛2,890 [1]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛3,984,228 / ㋛3,984,458 [capacity: ㋛8,000,000]
✅ 👪 yalls.org: 635427561057812481 (Last update: 12:36 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03d06758583bb5154774a6eb221b1276c9e82d65bbaceca806d90e20c108f4b1c7
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛2,500/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛2,600,000 / ㋛2,368,684 [capacity: ㋛5,000,000]
✅ 👪 powernode.io: 631589165899972608 (Last update: 10:35 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02809e936f0e82dfce13bcc47c77112db068f569e1db29e7bf98bcdd68b838ee84
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛0 + ㋛100/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛252 [9], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛252 [9], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛976,363 / ㋛992,313 [capacity: ㋛2,000,000]
✅ 👪 lightning-roulette.com: 631563877105729536 (Last update: 10:35 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 031678745383bd273b4c3dbefc8ffbf4847d85c2f62d3407c0c980430b3257c403
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛205,492 [12] / ㋛10,000 [3], (W) ㋛205,492 [12] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛672,119 / ㋛296,564 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 kornpow: 632376416256983040 (Last update: 01:59 UTC on Monday, 13 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03077d02d11d2ade200c7fc5ba4fc66c1c599424fb945e88b3896fee6eedc07147
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛75,904 [1] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛563,238 / ㋛409,821 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 rompert.com🔵: 631590265456623616 (Last update: 10:45 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02ad6fb8d693dc1e4569bcedefadf5f72a931ae027dc0f0c544b34c1c6f3b9a02b
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛0 + ㋛1/144
Forwards: (M) ㋛385,376 [14] / ㋛96,415 [1], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛556,710 / ㋛411,958 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 VIX18: 632187300238983168 (Last update: 19:53 UTC on Saturday, 18 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03f8ab9b7496be92ce370e0224661d5d2de80bca8f505d66f1226d0e6002007d2a
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛100/144
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛201 [1], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛201 [1], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛491,575 / ㋛477,101 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 blackgold: 632112533487681536 (Last update: 04:20 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02f40890af885da4673f0ee9725ee74bb2c66d6491cc4334056a2701057993e61d
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛850 + ㋛10/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛490,679 / ㋛478,004 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 CoinGate: 631562777641943040 (Last update: 00:29 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 0242a4ae0c5bef18048fbecf995094b74bfb0f7391418d71ed394784373f41e4f3
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛10,003 [3] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛486,617 / ㋛482,056 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 Sagittarius A: 632050960773152769 (Last update: 23:49 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03a503d8e30f2ff407096d235b5db63b4fcf3f89a653acb6f43d3fc492a7674019
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛0 + ㋛1/30
Forwards: (M) ㋛411 [3] / ㋛186,026 [6], (W) ㋛411 [3] / ㋛163,884 [4], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛483,070 / ㋛485,616 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 ln1.satoshilabs.com: 631652937637363712 (Last update: 05:46 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 0279c22ed7a068d10dc1a38ae66d2d6461e269226c60258c021b1ddcdfe4b00bc4
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛0 + ㋛1,000/144
Forwards: (M) ㋛2,890 [1] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛2,890 [1] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛2,890 [1] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛479,021 / ㋛489,665 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 LightningPowerUsers.com: 631590265456689152 (Last update: 00:24 UTC on Wednesday, 29 May 2019)
Pubkey: 0331f80652fb840239df8dc99205792bba2e559a05469915804c08420230e23c7c
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛381,539 [4] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛380,991 / ㋛590,526 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 LN-Zone.com: 634200506026688512 (Last update: 07:19 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 02b3a79949fcb53da53050018837c8eff56ff571ef1e0552a80edeedbd7320ffb3
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛1/40
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛300,000 / ㋛668,674 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
✅ 👪 ACINQ: 632050960761552897 (Last update: 11:39 UTC on Tuesday, 28 May 2019)
Pubkey: 03864ef025fde8fb587d989186ce6a4a186895ee44a926bfc370e2c366597a3f8f
Fees: ㋛0 + ㋛10/40 / ㋛1,000 + ㋛100/144
Forwards: (M) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛225,904 [4], (W) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0], (D) ㋛0 [0] / ㋛0 [0]
Balances: [🥝🥝🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕] ㋛261,430 / ㋛711,629 [capacity: ㋛1,000,000]
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