Hello lightning observer!!!
OK. It's time for a post in here, isn't it?
I have some questions that some of you galaxy brains might be able to answer. I have been running an LND node since 2019 (not counting the one I had in 2018 that I killed), and only recently added a CLN node about 6 months ago. My questions have to do with both, but the LND node sees much more traffic with between 200-2000 transactions routed a day generally.
I have 4 channel state scenarios I see. But only want to really consider the LAST one.
- Some channels seem to want to almost auto balance themselves. In this case I assume my channel partner is a little OCD and is doing that. I have tried some of that myself, but it does not suit my personality really. I am more interested in using passive techniques to balance my channels more organically.
- A few channels seem to slosh back and forth entirely. I have some fairly large (~0.16BTC) channels with the exchanges that have come on board, Bitfinex, Kraken. And these channels like to slosh back and forth wildly. Makes sense. Someone wants to deposit $3k worth of bitcoin on Kraken? Well my channel can handle that, and then same with withdrawals.
- Some of my channels just don't do much. I assume these are nodes with low traffic and low use. I have begun to close these to instead open channels with folks that fall into the other three categories. Waste of time, these.
- Then there is my fourth type I would like your help with! There are the channekls that see great deals of action in ONE DIRECTION, then stop. In general, I open a channel to an channel partner, and the all the liquidity rushes over to one side then just stops. Boom. Done. It can go either way, but generally it goes to their side.
I see two ways to deal with these:
1. Once the liquidity is over to their side, then just close the channel, and open a new one. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
2. Coax the liquidity back over to the dry side of the channel.
(3. Well I could also just leave it alone and end up with a channel that is effectively #3 up there. And that is pretty much what has been happening.)
So. The easy solution is to close and reopen the channel. I have even notice that certain commercial LSPs you open channels to, once the liquidity has all rushed over to the other side then slam the channel closed themselves. Wham, bam, thank you mam. And actually, I plan to start setting those channels back up with a fee structure that will make more sats than it costs to open and close the channel, and start being that kind of liquidity... In fact these sorts of things may be the most profitable of all.
But my bias is to basically run as much liquidity as I can without losing money. So I am glad to charge NO FERES AT ALL if I can figure out how to keep the liquidity moving back and forth...
So that's the question. What strategy would you guys use to, once all the liquidity has flowed to one side, coax it back over to the other? In fact some of my channels with various bitcointalk forum users are the main ones that work this way... I honestly do not need to make any money off a channel we share. I just want to help make the LN be a success. I would even consider closing and reopening the channel over and over... but in that case I would probably want to make a couple thousand sats on the the life of the channel to make that worth doing... So I am more interested in sustaining open channels without closing at all (which, frankly is the point right?)
Hope you are all well!
Any ideas?
PS. I forgot to mention one thing. I am biased towards ZERO FEES. Like I said I just want the damn lightning network to actually succeed. But I do not want to LOSE money. So though I prefer very low fees, I do not mind tweaking them for the sake of accomplishing the ability to keep a channel open definitely... The incentives for running a lightning node are actually somewhat elegant the more I think about them!
