Skip to content

Home node FAQ

Jump to bottom
Paul Itoi edited this page Mar 30, 2021 · 28 revisions

All nodes

Sphinx uses the bitcoin lightning network to send and receive information. The lightning network is made up of thousands of computers running the lightning server software. Your raspberry pi running the lighting software (LND) is one of these nodes on the network. You node has to have a connection called a 'channel' to at least one other node in order to send and receive information. A channel is a special bitcoin transaction that locks up bitcoin for use between two nodes.

Is your node ready?

  • Your node has to be in sync with the bitcoin blockchain in order to open a channel (this can be in normal or the faster neutrino mode)
  • You have to have some bitcoin (recommend at least .01 or 100,000 satoshis)

Now open a channel: You can connect to any node, but for your first channel you can link to one of ours to minimize errors:

  • gameb_2: 03c8dfbf829eaeb0b6dab099d87fdf7f8faceb0c1b935cd243e8c1fb5af71361cf@3.234.251.85:9735
  • gameb_1: 023d70f2f76d283c6c4e58109ee3a2816eb9d8feb40b23d62469060a2b2867b77f@54.159.193.149:9735

Open a channel with Thunderhub:

Important:

  • RTL currently does not support pushing sats to the other nodes when opening a channel
  • Channel size should be 50,000 sats or higher
  • The "push" amount to our routing node should be 2% since 1% is set aside as a channel reserve and is unusable
  • Make sure to select Auto for the Fee option to pay for the transaction to be recorded unless you are confident in setting a specific fee.
  • Make sure to select "Public" as the channel unless you know how to share routing hints with your contacts.

Open a channel manually:

  1. Before opening a channel, you need to connect to our node. Choose a node a run "lncli connect" and add one of the options above
  2. Open a channel to that node: "lncli openchannel --local_amt=100000 --push_amount=1200 --sat_per_byte=20"
  3. We use mempool.space to estimate the fee to set in the sat_per_byte option
  4. Copy the transaction ID and you can track when it gets confirmed on your node or using a website like mempool.space or blockstream.info (it's less private to use the websites than your home node)

Umbrel with Sphinx on Android The current version of of Sphinx on android requires Orbot

  1. Download Sphinx for Android, Linux, or Windows -> https://sphinx.chat
  2. Install Orbot
  3. Configure Orbot with VPN On and IPv6 Disabled

Umbrel with Sphinx on iOS

  • Search for "Sphinx Chat" on the App Store for iOS or MacOS
Clone this wiki locally