LNBig insight about running a LN node \ stacker news ~lightning

Posted on nostr - by LNBIG

Hello everyone! I want to share my opinion on how much a node or multiple nodes in the Bitcoin LightningNetwork can earn for their owners, using the example of my own nodes. I will provide the figures as an annual percentage.

Currently, over approximately five days, the entire network of my nodes earns about 500,000 satoshis per day on average. This is an average parameter. 500,000 satoshis is 0.005 bitcoins.

The liquidity on my side across all nodes is roughly around 300 bitcoins. So, let's simply calculate the annual percentage. You can roughly calculate it like this: 0.005 bitcoin multiplied by 365 days divided by 300 bitcoins. Multiply by 100%, and it comes out to about 0.6% profit from fees, which are currently at 700 ppm + 1 sat base fee.

This formula does not take into account the costs for opening channels, which include on-chain fees for Bitcoin channel opening transactions, nor does it include various expenses related to channel closures, whether automatic or forced, cooperative or forced. We are just taking the net figure as if the same channels were open all year without any expenses. You should also consider the risks associated with annual node maintenance. These include hosting costs, creating backups, labor efforts, and the risks of node hacking, which could theoretically be hacked and have all funds stolen.

Is this a profitable venture? You decide for yourselves. I just wanted to share some useful information with you.

Goodbye!

105 sats \ 0 replies \ @SwapMarket 7h

LNBIG has been running for 5 years or so, why only give a five day average? Five days of force closes at high mempool can wipe out years of revenues. So yeah, running a node is an expensive hobby. But a true bitcoiner should not seek yield on his stash. Yield is a fiat concept, because it is needed to treadmill constant debasement.

54 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 6h

That's good context for those who want to make money node running.

I like doing it because it's something I can actually do that adds to the network, it's giving me a better sense of how the LN works, and I can use prices to rebalance my channels (hypothetically).

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 3h

Thanks LNBIG

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 5h

Good info.

I think smaller nodes might earn a lot less as a percentage.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jinformatique 6h

It's great to have 300 bitcoins of liquidity. What about plebs starting only with 0.1 bitcoin? It sure is worth it to learn and gain the experience of running an LN node. But there must be another revenue to being able to add bitcoin liquidity to the node.