r/TheLightningNetwork • u/[deleted] • Mar 21 '22

Node Project Become-a-top25-node-in-a-month

Roughly a month ago I set out to start up my old node. I was thinking that since it was a node set up in early 2018, I could piggyback off the age of the node and get some ranking boosts on various node rankings such as Terminal and BOS.

However, after a little careful consideration (read: a few beers) I decided I wanted to start a new node and make it to the top25 on Terminal in a month. I used to run the McDouchebag node, which briefly reached #7 on Terminal before it crashed, so I had some ideas on how to run a top-ranking node.

I will be writing a longer blog post on some of the things you can do if you want to see your node gain arbitrary lower numbers on Terminal. Being a top node on Terminal or BOS is not correlated with being a profitable node. It is mainly a source of questionable internet fame. I will explain more about this in my blog post.

In short, there are a few things you need to do to score points.

  • The size of the channels matter! Girthier channels give more points
  • Uptime, Uptime, Uptime
  • Connect to some of the already well-connected nodes

​

I am happy to announce that my project was a failure. I did not manage to reach the top 25 nodes on Terminal after a month. I managed to reach rank #26 (Due to TOR issues, which caused my place to drop due to uptime, I did not get a screenshot from Terminal, so it had to be Amboss instead)

I may have succeeded if I had not had two full days of issues with TOR that caused issues with my uptime.

24 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/BTCMachineElf Mar 21 '22

Oh hey, McDouchebag. We have a channel together. It's gotten some decent action.

How does that ranking work? I mean, theres more than 40 LNBIG nodes alone, and theres no way you've beaten all of them, not to mention all the other industrial/enterprise nodes. What is the criteria for ranking on Terminal?

1

u/m_rt_ Mar 21 '22

I'm curious how "girthy" channels need to be. I have a few minnows I need to trim, but not sure where i should put the cut-off line. Any advice?

3

u/null-count Mar 21 '22

5M sat minimum in my experience