Difference between revisions of "FAQ"

From lightningwiki.net
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Added question and answer for common confusion about shifting balances in lightning wallets)
Line 12: Line 12:
= Is running a node dangerous? =  
= Is running a node dangerous? =  
Yes. Your funds are on a hot wallet, connected to the internet. Think about security.
Yes. Your funds are on a hot wallet, connected to the internet. Think about security.
= Why is my balance changing without me sending or receiving transactions? =
There are several possibilities, it could be you are accumulating fees for routing transactions. You can check this with 'lncli feereport'
Another likely possibility is commit fee renegotiation. Commit fees for channels get renegotiated as the cost to publish to the bitcoin blockchain changes. When the commit fees rise (btc fees become more expensive) some of your local balance is reserved to meet those fees, resulting in your local balance dropping. When fees drop the reverse happens.
To avoid this issue what you want to do is sum all your channel local balances with the commit fees for only the channels you have opened. There is currently no easy way to tell if you opened a channel or not. Right now the solution is to infer whether or not the local node opened a channel by its sent, received, and local balance.
PR's in lnd relevant to this issue:
"contractcourt: settle invoice when claiming HTLC on-chain"
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2075
"htlcswitch: reliable HTLC tracking"
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2265
"Extend ListPayments response by original invoice memo "
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2440
"lnrpc+rpc: add initiator field to listchannels"
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2473

Revision as of 18:41, 16 January 2019

Hi reader! We are in the beginning days of the Lightning network, and the beginning days of this wiki! Please help by expanding this article!


What is Lightning?

A way of making quick peer to peer payments over the internet, backed by Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.

Can I use it already?

Yes, just choose a Wallet

Why would I run a node?

Because it is cool, and you get some fees for routing

Is running a node dangerous?

Yes. Your funds are on a hot wallet, connected to the internet. Think about security.

Why is my balance changing without me sending or receiving transactions?

There are several possibilities, it could be you are accumulating fees for routing transactions. You can check this with 'lncli feereport'

Another likely possibility is commit fee renegotiation. Commit fees for channels get renegotiated as the cost to publish to the bitcoin blockchain changes. When the commit fees rise (btc fees become more expensive) some of your local balance is reserved to meet those fees, resulting in your local balance dropping. When fees drop the reverse happens.

To avoid this issue what you want to do is sum all your channel local balances with the commit fees for only the channels you have opened. There is currently no easy way to tell if you opened a channel or not. Right now the solution is to infer whether or not the local node opened a channel by its sent, received, and local balance.

PR's in lnd relevant to this issue:

"contractcourt: settle invoice when claiming HTLC on-chain" https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2075

"htlcswitch: reliable HTLC tracking" https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2265

"Extend ListPayments response by original invoice memo " https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2440

"lnrpc+rpc: add initiator field to listchannels" https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/pull/2473