I tried to setup a LN using this link but I stopped because it says that as pre requisite to LN is that "You need to have a full Bitcoin node, not just a LN running a copy of Bitcoin Blockchain."

Moreover, my laptop is enough to run a node or I need to get some specialized server type machine to run a LN?

That's not very accurate because 1) you can use Neutrino mode instead of Bitcoin nodes and 2) I already have a synced node from which I can generate RPC credentials for you.

You can even run a LN node on your desktop, but to receive payments (zaps) you need to keep it on.


So basically, you need an RPC connection and a ZMQ connection from Bitcoin core to the LND software.

Basically, you need these options in bitcoin.conf:


The ZMQ publishing ports are for automatically relaying new blocks and transactions to LND, but there's also a mode where you can poll the RPC server with that information. In the case of the host I'd set it to 0.0.0.0 for all users to connect.

The only thing I don't like about this is that there can only be one RPC user/password. Wallet functionality is disabled so that's not a problem. But people can still stop the node with it and cause annoyances.

At this state you can send roughly 108k sats, i.e. that is your current outbound or sending capacity. With 14.5k inbound capacity (without prior sending!) your channel can immediately accept a payment of 14.5k sats to your LN wallet. Your Phoenix channel's total capacity is thus 122.5k sats at this moment.

Phoenix usually gives you about 10-15% of the funding amount as inbound capacity, so that you can immediately receive small payment without prior sending.

When you fund a "normal", say LND, channel with 110k sats, you have around 108k outbound capacity (around 2k sats are reserved for channel closure at current low mempool fees; the reserve amount will automatically vary with on-chain fee levels) and zero(!) inbound capacity. With zero inbound capacity your channel can't accept a single sat. So to get inbound capacity for such a channel you need to spend some sats first. If you send e.g. 38k sats, you end up with 70k sats outbound capacity (to send) and 38k inbound capacity (to receive).

It takes a bit to get the hang of it...

I disagree partly. Technically you don't need two channels, one to send, the other to receive, to be able to send and receive coins. You can send coins when your sole channel has outbound capacity. You can receive coins with the same sole channel if this channel has inbound capacity. (In this case all coin flow from your LN node goes through your channel partner. Your channel partner needs to be able to properly route your coins to and from some other LN node.)

The thing is just that when you fund and open a channel all liquidity is usually first on the outbound side. You can immediately send coins to your channel partner or routed by him to another LN node. But as you usually don't have any inbound capacity immediately after opening a channel (what Phoenix wallet does is not common!) you can't yet receive any coins to that channel as long as you don't create inbound capacity by sending out some coins from that channel.

What is true, you need at least two channels to route coins through your node. Your node could route a payment of someone else that goes in through a channel of yours that has enough inbound capacity and that goes out by your other channel that has enough outbound capacity (you can claim a little bit of routing fees; don't even think to get greedy).

I did not dabble in LN before but I am running a fully synced Bitcoin node. Do I qualify for the 30 merits if I use Electrum wallet for opening lightning channels?

I had hopes for opening Electrum channels but have to let it go because your post took my confidence away. Three Electrum channels will not be cheap. I will read about the Electrum routing issues, when I am ready I may potentially select a new option. I have one problem less to think about because I have a fully synced node.

Some time ago, I still investigated about creating an LN channel in Windows. But I ended up not moving forward.

Perhaps this can be an opportunity to look at this situation again. But, what would be the best program to create an LN channel on Windows?

Yeah... I think I went through that option. I don't remember if it was this or another tutorial I saw, but I'll look at it again.

I have a full Bitcoin node spinning, so if the whole process was less complicated I would have done it already. But, it's quite complex and complicated, and I need to have some free time to focus on it and analyze everything.

I do have a lightning node with 3 open channels, but I 'd like to keep them private.

I was thinking about setting up a new one for this challenge.

Phoenix opens up and manages channels for you, does it count? Because it's technically running a node on your mobile device, but it helps you avoid much hassle.