Hi! I wanted to ask you guys what I am doing wrong with Phoenix Wallet.
I recently downloaded it to try to use it. I wanted to transfer 20 sats from ZBD but I got information reject that the fee is bigger than the transaction (fee shows at 2065 sats). Why is the fee so big? In other wallets it is always a few sats. What am I doing wrong and is it possible to somehow reduce the fee on Phoenix?
This fee is basically a mining fee, because in Phoenix you actually have your own Lightning channel, which takes an on-chain transaction to open the first time. Later on, with this channel already opened, the fee will only be that of a Lightning transfer, so presumably a few sats.
See this table for more details (in the "Fees after" column, since you're running the latest version of Phoenix).
As you can see, you're in the "receiving Lightning with insufficient liquidity" case, i.e. the last line of the table. The fee is actually smaller than what you would have had to pay with the previous version of Phoenix, which didn't have splicing. For more details as to what 'splicing' means in that context, you can take a look at the "Wallet & Tools" section of this newsletter I wrote, or to Phoenix's blog post.
Using Lightning with full control over your funds (i.e. "self-custody") comes at the unescapable cost of having to open a channel. Wallets that don't allow you to have your own channels and private keys are custodial: you trust them not to steal your funds, like a bank.
So you're doing nothing wrong. I would even say, you're doing it right! ⚡️
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Thanks for the explanation😁 I thought it was a transaction fee and it's just a fee for opening a channel.
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Yeah! You’re on the right path now. If it’s not too late, your first transfer to Phoenix should be a large one. Even if you have to send 90% of the deposit back to its original source, you’ll now have a nice fat channel open and the likeliness of needing to open another channel, with another on chain fee, goes down.
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Okay, in Phoenix you can set the maximum fee. Should I leave it at 2500 sats or modify it? Do you have any recommended settings for newbies (if you use this wallet of course)?
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