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My Adventures in ⚡️Lightning⚡️ Land
duda-wsm • Jun 02, 2019
Getting started in lightningBuying hardware to build a nodeMy first home built nodeDownloading the blockchain, random issues, easily resolvedLoss of funds & LND cipher seeds.Custodial vs. non custodial
Getting Started in Lightning
Firstly, this article assumes you are already familiar with bitcoin, you’ve installed a bitcoin wallet & maybe you already run a bitcoin full node(if you don’t then you should). Before we start down this journey its important to be honest with ourselves and our technical ability. This will shape our decision as to the type of lightning node adventure we embark on.
Some questions to ask ourselves before we choose:
Am I a tinkerer? or do I just want to buy the utility and run it?
This is really the basis for the type of node you will ultimately choose, if you’re a the person who wants a utility then you have the following options (that i know of):
The scope of this article is not go into each of those options, all are hyperlinked so you can go check them out and decide which price point and option you would like.
as a tinkerer now your options expand; although each of the utility nodes i listed above offer a certain level of tinkering this isnt enough for the person that wants to build from the ground up. these are the nodes i know of so far, there is some development going on and we will soon see a more powerful nodes using the intel atom processor currently known as atomicPi but it isnt ready for release at the time of this writing.
Tinkerer node types (that i know of)
We arent going to get into the intricacies of each, so we will summarize:
both Raspiblitz and Raspibolt require purchasing hardware(raspi pi 3+, and odriod option for Raspibolt available) Bolt hardware
Blitz hardware
the node launcher is by far the cheapest and easiest way of getting into running a lightning node, its a desktop application, you simply setup and go! no specialized hardware required. although with any device acting as a lightning node you may want to consider a UPS and a secondary hardrive and or thumbdrive to backup the lnd directory, more on this later in the ‘Loss of funds & LND cipher seeds’ section.
How much time and energy do I want to spend?
This is a major determing factor; if you dont enjoy alot of reading, some or maybe alot of troubleshooting then a tinkerer you are not. A utility node usually takes max an hour to setup(i’m being generous) the time you wait until you use is usually just a final block sync from wherever it was when they laid the image down at the factory(12–24hrs).
Am I willing to invest money into this? if so how much?
if money is no issue and you are not a tinkerer or maybe you are but dont care to get into lightning in this way, then a utility node is for you. I have only used the casa node in this category and can say the user experience is excellent, i have not used the others mentioned at the beginning of the article, i imagine their user experience is similar.
If money is an issue and you want a balance between the tinkerer node and utility then most likely the Node Launcher is for you. its a desktop application which runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The only point to be aware of is you need ensure you have a HDD able to download the blockchain (at time of writing the bitcoin blockchain requires 237gig on disk) so be safe you should have at least 500gigs free, 1TB optimally on which ever disk you are using as blockchain storage.
If you wanna tinker and buy all the parts which ‘can’ cost you almost as much as a utility node then the Raspiblitz and or Raspibolt is for you. I am not going to reinvent the wheel, Rootzoll posted a wonderful shopping list split by country for all the normal parts here scroll to the section called ‘International Shopping Lists (buy parts & build it yourself)’ some upgrades you can do are: better quality SD card, use an SSD drive with a SSD to usb case instead of a standard external drive with spindles. Although your transfer times are still impacted due to usb 2.0 limitations, i can say from experience that the setup time is drastically reduced with the use of an SSD, my node was up and running fully synced from os install to completion in less than 48 hours vs. standard 5400rpm external hdd if all went well 4–6 days, all my future lightning nodes will have an external SSD. Here is an example of the case i purchased from NewEgg
this section will finish with mentioning the people who want to use lightning but dont really want to be dealing with a bitcoin/lightning node. There are many wallets out there right now and the list is ever growing, i will mention a few that i know of and have used for example:
Buying hardware to build a node
you’ve decided to tinker, yay! well you are in for a world of fun. as i mentioned earlier the shopping list from Rootzoll is comprehensive, there is a link to the page in the getting started section. I have already mentioned if you want a better blockchain setup time, get an SSD. Keep in mind when buying all this hardware you will need a housing/case. There are some generic ones available but none really meant for a raspiblitz or raspibolt. the only case maker i know of, and i have purchased 2 cases myself so i can stand behind their work and quality is the crypto cloak check them out!
A word of warning on power supply’s… ensure that the power supply purchased is 5V/3A out otherwise using the standard supply that may or may not come with the raspberry PI 3b+ may cause undesired behavior:
Errors starting the unit up (it may fail at different points each time, making it really tough diagnose as a power issue)
Errors downloading the blockchain
Error reading the disk
For a micro SD card you need something fairly decent i went with the following: Samsung PRO Endurance 32GB Micro SDHC Card with Adapter — 100MB/s U1 (MB-MJ32GA/AM)
My first home built node
ok so my first attempt was almost a total failure, i attempted the raspibolt and although i ‘got it running’ something wasnt quite right, many strange errors and I hadnt really messed with linux distro’s in a long time. this was all user errors i am not ashamed to admit. In no way is this a bash on the raspibolt, if you wanna know how to build a node from the ground up, compiling scripts, downloading packges via command line etc… this is the node build you want to attempt. you will understand alot more about bitcoin and lightning doing this project.
my first successful build of a node was the raspiblitz 1.1 with lnd 0.5.2 beta and bitcoin 0.17.0.1 mainnet. I say it was successful because i felt comfortable enough to put real funds on it. the feeling of seeing that management screen come up for the first time, it was incredible. I didnt get into bitcoin that early so i never took the opportunity to mine it, for me, this was my way of finally contributing in a meaningful way. I absolutely love building these nodes and since that first one i have built 3 more. the raspiblitz has many features, my favorite is the web interface called RTL(Ride the lightning) they can be found here, its intuitive and easy to manage your node with, they keep refining and adding more features in each release and will also soon be found in some utility nodes like the NODL. It was really fun to set one of these up, now im pretty much addicted and need to build more of them. In the next section we will discuss downloading the blockchain.
Downloading the blockchain, random issues, easily resolved
Everything detailed here is my experience with the raspiblitz unless otherwise specified. The first node i installed(energone cube2)i had a few diffculties. During the torrent blockchain download itself it would start to hang, i would restart the unit, it would get further and the download would seemingly suspend. restart once more and now it doesnt download as much ….. and suspends.
I got to a point in the final sync of the blockchain where the progress seemed to start going backwards, indeed after observing the progress for sometime i could see my blockchain final sync status decrement. I was afraid to really do anything so i left it… waited 6 days… and no improvement. i finally went on raspiblitz github and found the command to reboot… lol it came back up and immediately started syncing. every single issue i encountered was resolved with a reboot, in some cases a full shutdown and power down was necessary.
Another peculiar issue experienced was once i got to lightning filtering blockchain it just stayed there and never moved along, i waited over 4 days. I then went on git and found that others had experienced this as well. a simple script (./70initLND.sh) and i was up and running.
The takeway from all of this, dont be afraid to reboot, get comfortable with the command prompt.
Loss of funds & LND cipher seeds
As anyone who has sacrificed bitcoin to the great bitcoin god; knows its not easy when you realize you’ve lost your btc, the very thought you’re btc might be gone is enough to cause cringe. I dont say the following lightly: if this is you and you are insanely afraid of losing BTC then running a lightning node at this time may not be the best idea.
At the time of this writing all is experimental albiet stable but still experimental. Lets get to it: the first node i ever built had an HDD failure, naturely i had my ‘LND cipher seed’ and figured at the very least i can still retreive onchain funds. please note an LND cipher seed is not like a bitcoin wallet seed, in my experience you cannot use a bitcoin wallet to restore these funds. so far the only known ways to restore your funds once in this condition is to reset up the node and restore the seed(which didnt work in my case) or use lightninglabs alpha wallet(which also did not work for me) i have read others accounts of varying success with both methods. Now this isnt a slam piece on the technology. its important to understand the current pit falls so they can be addressed and currently they are being addressed. the addition of watchtowers and static channel backups will certainly help; but again these are not silver bullets and they come with tradeoffs. in my case i was ultimately reckless and foolish. I didnt backup the lnd directory and simply formatted the drive thinking the cipher seed would be enough, this is a user error.
Custodial vs. non custodial: tradefoffs/advantages
As Trace Meyer would remind us if we are 1st class bitcoin citizens then we hold our own PK and run a full node; that carries over into the realm of lightning where you need to be aware of the difference between a custodial vs. a non custodial wallet as well. In a custodial wallet scenario you do not control your private keys, your funds are held by a ‘trusted’ third party (and i say trusted lightly) in a non custodial scenario, you own the keys the trusted 3rd party if any has no ability to censor your funds in anyway.In lightning when using custodial you are connecting to someone else’s node to use the lightning network for payment, the channel you open is not your own it is on someone else’s node. whereas if you run your own lightning node, you connect to your own node and use your own channel with your funding. I always vote for non custodial, it may be tougher because you need your own node but it provides for maxmimum control and safety over your transactions.
Final thoughts
I continue to build nodes today, right now we arent far away from some really big moves for lightning nodes, they are getting more powerful and are becoming able to handle much more load. better hardware + advances in the lightning network itself are going to make for a very interesting road ahead.
Stay #reckless, #StackingSats, keep learning! find me on twitter @coinicarus
Twitter & Telegram @Coinicarus
Email me at coinicarus@funwithbitcoin.com
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