I used ride the lightning to open a channel manually instead of trying to configure to open up channels automatically, which I later enabled. 1ml I think I used Start9hq and later after getting sats back maybe Open node, I can’t remember and maybe one more. Everything was ok. First node started Then I realized I had no incoming SATS and I sent it out and then back into the wallet and then it started with the automatic channels. Balance I had in wallet 385,000
Backed up the wallet by making a back up of entire start9 os.
Was having problems with local not opening in start9 Firefox browser, but was able to open for sites using tor interface. Was able to open up on local browser (chrome) and Android with both local (WiFi) and Tor.
Tried to download and install the LLM Free GPT and it started acting funny, tried to rebuild and it got stuck, I may have shut it down to soon, but it seemed to not be working for many hours ( it says 1 hour for the rebuild) I had done it before successfully.
It wouldn’t let me back in, then I had to remove start9 and restore from back up.
I did it, it started running again, logged in, realized Bitcoin knots was gone. Redownload the Blockchain from Sunday before last to last Thursday. Electrs and then LND restored. The channels and the balance seemed the same. One of the channels was over 500,000 since I believe I followed start9 channel instructions and the other one I know for sure and maybe another small one that was probably done when I switched it to automatic.
Next thing I know on Sunday I couldn’t get in from mobile for a while and when I did I saw two new channels from the remaining balance that was in the original, no evidence of closed channels, transaction info regarding sweeps and an unhappy face.
Looked in lightning node connect on wallets I had setup through lightning terminal and saw that funds from those transactions are still there and the wallets are accessible.
I didn’t realize that RTL can open channels automatically. Why would you want it to be automatic? Seems dangerous.
@paul Am I missing something here? Does RTL have the ability to open channels automatically? I don’t see that function anywhere. I don’t plan to go that route but just want to understand what OP is saying.
@Greg I’ve never used that either, so nothing to add. I agree that sounds like a good way to burn through sats in transaction fees.
@SunhSunh from your description, I am not clear on inbound and outbound balances. You mentioned that one channel was over 500,000 sats. What was the breakdown of sats on the inbound side and on the outbound side?
To hopefully simplify my understanding of the state prior to the problem happening, could you put together a rough list of channels and what you remember their breakdown of inbound and outbound balances were? Something like this:
X sats in the base-layer wallet
Chanel 1 with ACINQ (100,000 sats outbound, 400,000 sats inbound)
Channel 2 with a Start9 node (10,000 sats outbound, 60,000 sats inbound)
Channel 3 with So-and-so (40,000 sats outbound, 40,000 sats inbound)
The reason I am being particular on the inbound and outbound balances, is that only outbound are sats that belong to you when a channel is closed (inbound belongs to the other node), so it is difficult to analyize where sats were lost without having a picture of the outbound balances + the base layer wallet balance prior to the problem occurring.
Yep…if you don’t have a good understanding of how Lightning works you can get into a world of hurt real quick. I hope the OP comes back with clear information so you can help them to understand what happened.
So many don’t realize if you’re using Bitcoin or L-BTC and you make a mistake…that’s on you. There is no-one to call. No-one to blame. You are your own banker…and so you can only call yourself.
Best motto to live by is: “I win or learn and never blame.”
