Today I have decided to find out how far we are in the development of the Lightning Network (LN) and if the LN is already usable for 'normal' people.
Let's start with some prerequisites first:
My goal was to create two LN nodes and be able to send transactions between them. To try what's out there I found and installed two LN-ready bitcoin wallets. First Eclair Wallet and second Bitcoin Lightning Wallet. Now I know that Eclair wallet can be used only for outgoing LN transactions (so far) and Bitcoin Lightning Wallet can handle both.
So let's get you involved:
(You need 100000 Satoshi to open a new LN channel in Eclair Wallet.)
Use your own address!
TIP: I use Google Keep to share addresses between Android and Desktop
(You need 300000 Satoshi to open a new LN channel in Bitcoin Lightning Wallet)
The wallet will automatically send 1000 sat to Olympus server (a helper service for Lightning stuff) more info is here
1. Connect to ACINQ node again.
2. Fill 300000 into channel capacity field and keep the rest 10000 sat to pay the fees
3. Click on "NEXT"
First we are going to focus on Bitcoin Lightning Wallet. In order to receive Lightning payments, some conditions must be met. The important thing for us is that over 2% of the funds must be spent to make receiving possible (read more details here). By spending some funds, 'room' for incoming funds is made. In our case we must spent over 6000 sat, 1000 sat was already spent for Olympic server services so let's spend some more.
I have chosen three services accepting LN payments:
Quotefrom.me is a service to share your wisdom or simply to try the LN in practice. You pay 1337 sat for a post and then you can share it via Twitter. Awesome!
Payment is instant!
Lightningconductor.net is a great service to transfer funds between LN channel and Bitcoin address. Thanks to this we don't have to spend those funds (to make a room for incoming funds) but transfer them back to our Bitcoin address.
Bitcoin appeared almost instantly in my wallet!
I couldn't help my gambling heart! Lightningspin.com is a bitcoin gambling game that lives on top of the LN. It is the best for experimenting with the LN. You can send instant micro-transactions repeatedly and when you win you create your own LN invoice to receive the winnings.
Payment is received instantly!
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
I paid 2 sat in total. The additional 1 sat was paid as a routing fee. Payment was settled instantly!
It has been so fun! Honestly, I am very surprised how easy it is to use the Lightning Network on Android. Well done!