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Do you run a Lightning Node? Would you like to?

Exponential Layers is giving 1M Sats in prizes to Pleb Node operators who increase capacity the most during the month of September.
All of the details, eligibility, and rewards are outlined here: https://www.exponentiallayers.com/lightning-network-node-runner-contest-september

Check the Exponential Layers leaderboard to see top nodes and get started.

What data and analytics would be most helpful to see on Exponential Layers? Please post below with any contest questions or any analytics you would like to see, and stay tuned for ongoing feature releases and data point additions.
1323 sats \ 4 replies \ @jeff 8 Sep 2022
Have you ever seen how Dune Analytics allows users to make dashboards, then share them? I see you guys are attempting to curate and maintain sets of nodes. You're calling them "Directories". Keeping this list current takes effort/maintenance. And might not be correct. Especially if you're expecting your node-operators to opt into be tracked.
You could split the chore of finding/curating the node list and displaying the data. Let your users curate sets of nodes for you, you handle the displaying of the data part for any set of nodes they want.
Imagine "Jeff's List of Exchanges" or "Jeff's list of top 5 largest-exchanges by volume updated quarterly" or "Jeff's North American Exchanges" or "Jeff's 2021 No-KYC Services" or "@kr 's curated list of Exchanges".
v0.1 could be "enter a link to a a github gist"
eg. Imagine a link to node_list.md
First line is the title, every other line is a node id.
# Random List of CEX Exchanges 030c3f19d742ca294a55c00376b3b355c3c90d61c6b6b39554dbc7ac19b141c14f 037659a0ac8eb3b8d0a720114efc861d3a940382dcfa1403746b4f8f6b2e8810ba 03cc1d0932bb99b0697f5b5e5961b83ab7fd66f1efc4c9f5c7bad66c1bcbe78f02 02f1a8c87607f415c8f22c00593002775941dea48869ce23096af27b0cfdcc0b69 03cde60a6323f7122d5178255766e38114b4722ede08f7c9e0c5df9b912cc201d6 03037dc08e9ac63b82581f79b662a4d0ceca8a8ca162b1af3551595b8f2d97b70a 0311efd369cf39ca56df895232f02b75dfa64958c28b2890f3c3d59d9cff626510 0242a4ae0c5bef18048fbecf995094b74bfb0f7391418d71ed394784373f41e4f3 0294ac3e099def03c12a37e30fe5364b1223fd60069869142ef96580c8439c2e0a 026165850492521f4ac8abd9bd8088123446d126f648ca35e60f88177dc149ceb2 037f990e61acee8a7697966afd29dd88f3b1f8a7b14d625c4f8742bd952003a590 03271338633d2d37b285dae4df40b413d8c6c791fbee7797bc5dc70812196d7d5c 02a04446caa81636d60d63b066f2814cbd3a6b5c258e3172cbdded7a16e2cfff4c 030057ffea1a1650ce716aab702c9fc29ce24659b89650eb963f2455df0194c997 020a1df50b701331a29782093210460b10eee0ac5ef6a01b9c51dff9b8fddf5fb0 02fb79c3a9121d85b126687bd111eaebf21aaaaa5cbf232e2b6c3bdf8803f40182 02fe80fb6a2dc0fb6e9bec49c76d048889c91355d4e900fcb026bf095665790325 027e298196904f751891ca473b6d6a205649a47823ed0157e2f1211026278cd847
Then, given any set, plotting the time-series of capacity, count of channels, and per-exchange averages, for "Exchanges", would be a great chart over time.
It would make your site more interactive.
I think an idea like this, would help with social proof of lightning and bitcoin. When humans see trends created by other humans, they like to jump on them.
Good luck building! 💪
PS - thanks for running the contest. I think it's generous and seems fun.
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@jeff - thank you so much for this incredible feedback. Dune Analytics is spot on with empowering everyone with the tools to amplify everyone else, and we'd love to get to this point from a technical/feature perspective over time to amplify the growth and highlights of the LN and its activity.
Your idea of curated lists for directories/categories is great. To make sure I understand your idea, you would login (via node signature, LN, or email), create any list(s) of node categories by adding in their pubkeys/aliases, publish your list(s) - and then either you or anyone else could see this list, the aggregations and visuals associated - and possibly vote, star, and favorite these and see them over time?
Already excited to get going on something like this - this is very helpful and much appreciated 🙏
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You got it bang on.
My gist idea, was just one implementation path (of many) to reduce the front-end burden of making a UI to effectively let the users maintain an array of node-ids. Could make "community maintained" lists more possible. You could also do a walled garden thing, when users could "fork" (Backend copy, with breadcrumbs) another users' list, and modify it.
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This is great, and I love your ideas of forking and mixing lists as well. Will absolutely get this on the short term feature roadmap, and thanks again for your help here - I appreciate it and will reach out as we get started on this.
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Happy to help! Good luck!
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141 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 7 Sep 2022
cool idea, and a great way to get more people connecting their nodes to Exponential Layers
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Thanks @kr 🙏
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Looking for some ideas on increasing node capacity?
This post has some ideas (for example, a liquidity swap doubles total capacity): https://blog.exponentiallayers.com/how-to-increase-lightning-network-node-capacity/
And this Stacker News post has some great insight and strategies for running a node: #44747
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stupid
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My thoughts exactly. Capacity is a very rough metric for "utility" of the network. Capacity alone says nothing about the node/network's ability to route payments, or even the costliness of using that capacity (i.e. channels with ultra-high fees). It's easy to game the metric in the short term by buying inbound channels from LNBIG, etc. or opening massive channels just to close them later. An efficient node/network would have an extremely SMALL capacity and route high volumes. This competition is incentivizing an inefficient network with high capacity and low volumes.
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210 sats \ 1 reply \ @jeff 8 Sep 2022
Or...maybe it's just a harmless, friendly, contest. Just for fun.
Seems well intentioned, and generous. Might pull some new plebs in.
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Can't stop others doing stupid stuff with their BTC. Just tired of Bitcoiners praising LN capacity growth like it's a universally good thing.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 20 Apr
What features or analytics would Lightning Network node operators find most beneficial on Exponential Layers?
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