Poncho (Hosted Channels for CLN) - get started

Announced: https://twitter.com/fiatjaf/status/1554109889122803712 https://github.com/fiatjaf/poncho/

A quick and dirty (no verification) manual setup for amd64 (see the steps in next comment about how to build from source):

# dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libsecp256k1
sudo apt install -y libuv1

# switch to the bitcoin user
sudo su bitcoin
# plugins directory
cd /home/bitcoin/cl-plugins-available
# download
version=v0.4.1
wget https://github.com/fiatjaf/poncho/releases/download/${version}/poncho_x64
# make executable
chmod +x poncho_x64
# symlink to activate
ln -s /home/bitcoin/cl-plugins-available/poncho_x64 /home/bitcoin/cl-plugins-enabled/poncho

# back to admin
exit
# restart lightningd
sudo systemctl restart lightningd

You will know it’s working from it’s large feature bit when calling lightning-cli getinfo 😄

...
   "our_features": {
      "init": "2000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000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      "node": "0200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000800088082269a2",
      "channel": "",
      "invoice": "02000000024100"
   }
...

Connect https://sbw.app with a QR code of you node_id@hostname:port (same on https://amboss.space): Connect with a QRcode:

ln_getinfo=$(lightning-cli -H getinfo 2>/dev/null)
pubkey=$(echo "$ln_getinfo" | grep "id=" | cut -d= -f2)
toraddress=$(echo "$ln_getinfo" | grep ".onion" | cut -d= -f2)
port=$(echo "$ln_getinfo" | grep "port" | tail -n1 | cut -d= -f2)

URI="${pubkey}@${toraddress}:${port}"
echo "${URI}"
qrencode -t ANSIUTF8 "${URI}"

If you are running on Tor only start the Orbot app (latest version: https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot/releases) and switch on Use Tor connection in SBW.

Note that a hosting node needs to have at least one public channel for the hosted channel to receive payments through.

For this to work well you must be running CLN compiled from the latest master (or wait until the next v0.12.0 release) and you must have the setting allow-deprecated-apis=false in your config file (~/.lightning/config).

[fiatjaf]

There are no Scala dependencies at runtime, there is no JVM, the entire Scala thing gets compiled into native code, so don’t worry about that.

But yes, there is no advantage at all for using the dynamically-linked thing, if you prefer the Docker stuff go for it.

Actually I remember one advantage now: statically linking breaks the stack traces so if a crash happens it will be harder to debug – but I think we can just assume there are no bugs and there will be no crashes.

[steepdawn974]

Is there really an advantage of compiling with dynamically linked Scala libs in the context of a Raspiblitz instead of just compiling all deps in one executable (static linked)?

I reckon there won’t be (m)any other programs on a Blitz that would utilize scala libsecp256kq and libvu, so i guess statically linking is just fine, no?

Besides the podman build process seems more easily to be wrapped in a bash script (by non-guru like myself) 😅