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They can open channels for free. Only tiny advantage I can imagine

How do they open channels for free ?

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by mining them

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Electricity is free?

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no but miners don't pay mining fees

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They do. Everybody does. Miner A pays to the miner B who wins the mining race for the block with A's transaction.

Sometimes, it might happen that a miner mines a block with its own transactions. But that's nothing you can rely on.

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But that's nothing you can rely on.

You can. You just don't broadcast the transaction. So the transaction will only be included in a block when you mined a block. Then you can do it for free. You just need patience.

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There's still an opportunity cost of replacing that free TX

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Ya this is what i couldnt quite put my finger on, ty. It isnt free.

Ah, I see, you're right.

I only thought about mining fees when talking about "free transactions".

Plus some of the larger pools reliably mine many blocks per day. Definitely doable from that perspective

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Self-mined transactions are generally not free. The space could have been used for other, paying, transactions.

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Ooh. Nice way of putting it.

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