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154 sats \ 9 replies \ @siggy47 OP 1 Apr 2024 \ parent \ on: Help With LNDg? lightning
I agree @DarthCoin. I know this may sound crazy, but I won't use it for my node. As you know, my node is for personal use. I have a few large channels. What I'm trying to do is really understand the lightning network better. I'm not a technical guy. I don't find it easy learning node stuff through the command line. This software is GUI (sort of!), and it's crammed with all sorts of information re channels, payments, etc. Even after 2 1/2 years running a node, I'm still confused. I want to learn more about it, even though I probably won't use it. I don't learn well with technical books like Mastering The Lightning Network. Andreas gets way too technical for me really quickly.
Use Thunderhub or RTL. Very easy to use as node management for desktop.
In that guide I explained some methods to use it manually, no automation.
Don't be confused, it is very good that you want to understand more how LN works and yes, through command line will be a mess for you if you are not comfortable with.
LNDg is good indeed, but for the next step, when you have 200+ channels and you really need it for large traffic. LNDg is not running smooth with few channels and you will get frustrated.
Think about LN as a network of pipes, where the water are the sats in channels and the pipes are the channels, the transport. You are the "water manager" with a node and you have a big responsibility to make that water to flow smoothly through pipes, not too much but also not too little.
I hope you read my reply to Javier, on his post about closing his node: #486306
Also this guide, about liquidity
https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/managing-lightning-node-liquidity
More guides about nodes here:
https://darth-coin.github.io/nodes/nodes.html
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Or use both. I started with RTL but now I use both depending on what I'm doing and what I want to see.
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Exactly, it can complement each others easily in many tasks.
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I got most of my information from your guides. I do use RTL and Thunderhub. I also did read your reply to Javier. It's kind of depressing, huh, that someone who built a really powerful node got disillusioned and decided to shut down?
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Noooo is not depressive at all! Why many people saw it like that?
It is not. I think is a good thing that he came out to say that story.
Is a big lesson for many, because you see, very few noobs know about that you can run in many ways a LN node.
Please don't consider that post as a FUD or bad thing for LN, it is not.
Javier knows very well about the limitations of today of LN implementations, and his personal infrastructure limitations that were too low for his expectations.
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I definitely didn't see it as fud, but if guys at his level are dropping out, should we just accept that only really big enterprise nodes will handle most of the routing?
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I think the most accurate way to think about this, or at least the way I think about it is that right now being a routing node requires dedication and knowledge. That doesn't mean enterprise only. I also think this is only the status quo.
The trend in technology is that complex things get easier to do over time. It is far easier to self host many services today than it was even 5 years ago. I see expansion of both pleb and enterprise lightning node hosting going forward. The tools are getting better. They tend to get better during bear markets though so through this bull market we may not see huge improvements.
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But he's not dropping out !
He just decided that in his case, is better to run PRIVATE nodes.
That's all.
Public routing nodes require a lot of work and resources, things that he reached a limit.
You can run perfectly fine a private node (non-routing) and nobody will say absolutely anything and your payments will go through perfectly fine.
hould we just accept that only really big enterprise nodes will handle most of the routing?
What is wrong with that? They respect the main protocol and done.
LN is composed in many levels of nodes, not just routing nodes.
Decentralization do not come from how many public routing nodes exist, but from how many private nodes are using that public liquidity...
I am sure there are more private nodes than public ones.
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Good point.