Choosing a Channel Peer

Every lightning node on the lightning network has a unique set of connections to the rest of the network. Opening a channel to a peer isn’t “locking up funds.” In reality, it’s dedicating your capital towards not only that node, but all of it’s connections and destinations.

What makes a good lightning channel?

• Connectivity
• Capacity
• Uptime/Availability

How can I find people looking for new channels?

Start by joining the best telegram channel for this purpose: https://t.me/LNBalancedChannels

*Warning*: Be ready to pay the entry fee lightning invoice within 15 minutes. If you don’t make it in time, send me a keysend message with your @ username and I’ll give you another shot.

Opening A Balanced Channel:

Here are the instructions to give to the trusted peer after the trusting peer completes the details:

1.) add me as a peer
<node id>@<IP address >:9735
2.) Send me an on-chain receive address (can be your node) in a PM so I can fund my end.
3.) Send funds to your on-chain lightning wallet (if not already there) to fund your end.
3.) Navigate to the command line interface
4.) Let’s discuss channel size and proofread the subsequent command:
5.) Construct the following in a single command:
lncli openchannel <node id> –local_amt <total channel capacity> –push_amt <amount to send on lightning> –sat_per_byte <chain fee rate>
6.) Double check together that all user-entered data is appropriate before entering the command.

Don’t know who to open a channel to?

• Announce to the group that you’re looking to open a channel.
• Specify how many sats you’re willing to contribute to the channel.
• Request a willing peer’s pubkey so you can check on 1ml.com whether they will be an appropriate peer for you.

Helpful bots:

Note – Please use commands to the bots in a DM, and not in the group chat to keep the chat less cluttered.

@ln_name_server_bot
-Purpose: matches telegram user names to the pubkey of their node.
-Commands: / claim (adds your node to the list), / list (lists all telegram users and their associated pubkeys)
-Questions? Ask @offerm

@lightningwatchbot
-Purpose: notifies you if/when your node is down, continues to notify you if you node is down for an extended period.
-Commands: Open a DM to lightningwatchbot and enter / start. It will walk you through.
-Questions? Ask in the Support chat – https://t.me/lightningwatch

@lntxbot
-Purpose: A fully functional custodial Lightning Wallet for telegram.
-Commands: Open a DM to lntxbot and enter / start. It has too many features to list.
-Tip: To pay any invoice in telegram, forward the invoice or QR to your chat with the bot.
-Questions? Join https://t.me/lntxbot_dev and get ready to pay the entry invoice.

Additional Tools:

Balance of Satoshis (BOS): a power-user command line tool that specializes in finding the cheapest circular rebalances, creates your own telegram bot using BotFather, and many many other features.
Questions? Join Balance of Satoshis Chat – https://t.me/balanceofsatoshis.

Thunderhub: A Beautiful GUI for gathering stats from your node, viewing channel balanced-ness, and new features with frequent updates.
Questions? Join Thunderhub Chat – https://t.me/thunderhub.