Not much traffic on my node... any ideas on how to optimize?

Posted over 2 years ago by Prometheus

I had opened 24 channels thus far... but not seeing much traffic, only a handful of transactions.  Is anyone experiencing the same?  Any ideas on how to optimize to increase traffic and collect more fees?

4 Comments

LN+

LN+ Admin wrote over 2 years ago

Try gradually lowering your fees and see...


Prometheus

Prometheus wrote over 2 years ago

Thanks, @LN+ I have been thinking about adjusting fees.  Are you using any method/formula that you recommend?   For example, is it better to have fewer channels with more capacity or more channels with lower fees?   Is there an "optimal" channel capacity that is favored by the network?  Or is it better to set up more services on the node/server like a BTCPay for example to promote traffic?  


TheStrongHODL

TheStrongHODL wrote over 2 years ago

FYI, I have about 30ish channels now with about 1M in each channel... most channels are balanced 50/50 and use charge-LND to set fees... routing maybe 7 or 8 payments per week... still working on increasing my reach.


LN+

LN+ Admin wrote over 2 years ago

I don't run a for profit node, so my fees are all zero.

I think 1-2M channels are optimal as far as I can tell. Large channels are great, but it takes lots of liquidity.

Adding BTC PAY Server will not help at all.

What matters is:
  • Uptime - try to be 100% up or close to it.
  • Health of channels - ideally they also have high uptime, close zombie channels if they are offline for more than a week.
  • Balanced node overall. For example if you have 100M incoming and 10M outgoing, the 100M incoming will not be helpful that much.
  • Patience. Age helps with "trust" factors that are considered by routing algorithms.
  • Number of channels. The more the better.
  • Size of channels. The larger the better, but minimum is 1M for routing.

Check out this video to learn some tricks for optimizing channels: https://twitter.com/BTC_LN/status/1449097686666268675

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Lightning Network Node
Prometheus
Rank: 0
Capacity: 5,250,000 SAT
Channels: 7

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