How to open a payment channel?

Learn how to open a payment channel in your Alby Hub.

Payment channels are a foundational aspect of the lightning network. They are extremely powerful because they enable near instant and cheap bitcoin transactions. In Alby Hub, there are two main reasons to open a channel.

Top up your Spending Balance with BTC for spending on apps or sending to friends
Ensure you have enough Receiving Capacity to receive tips, boostagrams, or payments

With Alby Hub you are in control of your funds AND of the transaction fees you pay for your payments, because you choose the channel partner yourself. That's a big advantage over custodial wallets.

Open a payment channel

Click on the link below to see an interactive demo of opening a payment channel in your Alby Hub:

Important: channels can be public or private.

Only open private channels. Unless you are a podcaster or musician planning to receive Value 4 Value payments or boostagrams. In that case you need public channels.
Do not mix to mix private and public channels

Which Lightning Service Provider to choose?

Alby Hub makes it extremely easy to open a payment channel. It offers a selection of Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) from which users can lease channels. In return you have a consistent and reliable payment experience. By default Alby Hub will automatically choose the best channel partner for you and you are free to choose yourself via "Advanced" settings.

Overview of available LSPs

LSP

Minimum Channel duration

Sending fees*

Comment

Flashsats

12 months

0.2% + 0.001 sat

LNServer

3 months

LQWD

n.a.

0.1% + 3 sat

Megalith LSP

3 months

0.1% + 1 sat

Your channel stays open longer if you send or receive at least one payment per 30 days.

Olympus by Zeus

12 months

Channel will be closed immediately after the duration.

*Total sending fees depend on routing nodes along the payment route to the recipient. There are zero fees for receiving payments.

Great! 🎉 Now you understand why and how to open a channel!

💡TIP💡It is recommended to have more than one channel if you want to be insured against downtimes of a single channel partner.

Thank you for stopping by! This section was created with contributions from Moritz & Jean-Paul

Last updated 1 month ago

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Open a payment channel

Click on the link below to see an interactive demo of opening a payment channel in your Alby Hub:

Important: channels can be public or private.

Only open private channels. Unless you are a podcaster or musician planning to receive Value 4 Value payments or boostagrams. In that case you need public channels.
Do not mix to mix private and public channels

Which Lightning Service Provider to choose?

Overview of available LSPs

LSP

Minimum Channel duration

Sending fees*

Comment

Flashsats

12 months

0.2% + 0.001 sat

LNServer

3 months

LQWD

n.a.

0.1% + 3 sat

Megalith LSP

3 months

0.1% + 1 sat

Your channel stays open longer if you send or receive at least one payment per 30 days.

Olympus by Zeus

12 months

Channel will be closed immediately after the duration.

*Total sending fees depend on routing nodes along the payment route to the recipient. There are zero fees for receiving payments.

Great! 🎉 Now you understand why and how to open a channel!

💡TIP💡It is recommended to have more than one channel if you want to be insured against downtimes of a single channel partner.

Thank you for stopping by! This section was created with contributions from Moritz & Jean-Paul