Casa Lightning Node Setup!
The other day I got my CASA lightning network node which runs a pretty heafty price tag of $300. However it honestly is plug and play easy to setup. I did have a few questions when setting it up as it was my first in home node but overall I was able to get it setup in a day. (A day because I had to sync the rest of the bitcoin and lightning block which took a few hours.
So first lets get into a little about the lightning network.
This snapshot was taken on 6-10-2019 at 12:38am EST this is the current amount of lightning nodes, number of channels and the current network capacity.
The screenshot below was taken from a video on Dec 18th 2018 so you can see the growth in just 6 months.
Nearly double the amount of nodes, over double the amount of channels and the network capacity is way up from 1.6 million to now 7.2 million. While the nodes have not changed all that much we can see the capacity of the lightning network is growing very quickly by a million dollars a month with the snapshots we have here.
Alright so setting up that CASA node is super simple and yes it is pricey for what you are getting. You could if you had the known how set this up yourself for about $100 or less. But what we are paying for here is simplicity so that anyone with some bitcoin can run their own node.
- Unpackage your box
- Connect the hard drive cable to the raspberry PI cable included snap snap done
- Sit it next to your router and connect it to the back with the provide Ethernet wire
- Plug it in for power
- Follow the link provided in your startup package - If you can't find it via that method I had to find it via an IP sniffer I used ipscan to get the IP address of the casa node
- Go to the link or IP address in your browser
- Let it sync the bitcoin network and lightning node the rest of the way (takes a few hours)
- Add some bitcoin to your wallet just click on Bitcoin > Transactions and click on the deposit button to get your bitcoin address
- After bitcoin has been transferred (I recommend about $100 worth but it is totally up to you if you want to add more or less) click on the Lightning > Manage and then click on mange for Autopilot channel settings.
- Configure the settings for example 300,000 satori per channel and number of channels you want to connect to and save.
Give it some time and shortly you should be connected to some channels and your node is now running!
Do you currently run a node yourself ?
If not do you think you will start one and possible pick up a CASA node ?
A seriously dumb question so apologies in advance, but is this a purely altruistic action or is there reward? I mean, could you explain more about running nodes on the lightning network please:-)
Since the fees on the lightning network are very low compared to making transactions on the bitcoin blockchain your earnings will be low as it is not heavily used yet. Its more for helping the network right now then making money.
However think of it this way. If you an a establish trusted node running and a year from now millions more of transactions are done and even if you get 1% of that then every one of those satoshis you earn are going to be worth it in the long run.
You are most likely looking at about $0.50 to $4 a month in earnings at the moment.
For me it is all about being a part of the network and helping it. And who knows $4 today would be $40 the next with a major bitcoin bullrun.
Thank you. Perfectly explained and I fully understand!
All part of my learning process so I guess I should go and have a wander through your back catalogue!
Thanks again for taking the time!
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Thank you for asking happy to help out where I can.
That sounded pretty easy to me, I guess you learn a lot here on steemit. I hope it floods you with bitcoins!👊 Looking forward to updates on roi.
They will be very low and most likely remain low. However for me it is about helping the network in my own little way and getting a bit in return.
I actually have a few bitcoin nodes including a Casa! The Casa is in the office while I run Pierre's Node Launcher on an old machine here at home. Both of those are on LND. For the cloud I run BTCPay and it's actually on c-lightning to let me test drive some of the different dapps for it. I'm debating picking up a NODL to have my own Dodo instance running at home but not sure I want another $300 node when I'm already using Wasabi.
Are you going to publicize your node address? If so I'll definitely open a channel with you. I think having liquidity on LN now is going to save people a TON of Satoshis in the future!
I usually deposit $10 worth of bitcoin a month my node to help inc liquidity and feel good about myself. Plus fees are cheap now so until hyperloop comes to LN to lower onchain fees open channels now 😘
I would like to do it weekly but don't want to spend more money lel
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Sweet I have only been in few like 2 days so I am not sure I even earned anything yet in fees lol Trying to figure out the node part a bit like if there are certain nodes you for sure want to be connected into.
I’ll get my CASA node delivered next week. Can’t wait to set it up.