How did I get rekt on Lightning Network? And you will too soon if you use the network.

I just wanted to send 0.00031 BTC to my Metamask wallet to pay transaction fees and do some stuff on RSK. To do that, I needed to bridge my funds from LN to RSK. Marduk. Exchange is a self custodian exchange where you can change BTC LN/BTC for rBTC. It works with preimage invoices, where if you don't claim your rBTC for some reason, your transaction gets a refund. At least, that is hopefully what it was meant to happen, but not this time.

Twenty-four hours ago, I sent a transaction that failed because, for some reason, the claiming option disappeared pretty much; it is how you send your rBTC into your Metamask, so the transaction failed, and now I had to wait for 144 blocks for my invoice to be refunded automatically. Still, unfortunately for me, my node went offline last night, and I didn't know of any found out in the morning. Probably the invoice was refunded during that time, and my node was offline.

To use Lightning Network, you must be online all the time, and if you are not going to be online, you need to pay someone to be online for you. That service is called WatchTowers. Now here is the real problem not all wallets support WatchTowers, and my node didn't have one, so when I went offline, the transaction expired, but my node was online, so the other party cheated, and now I am at a lost.

To avoid this issue, you have to be online 24/7 without fail. If you are waiting for a preimage invoice to expire or use a Watchtower, you must find a wallet that has that, too, because not all wallets have that option, not to mention you need a wallet that supports the latest gimmicks on LN as well. And this is another issue for LN. The features are not uniform across all wallets either, and developers are only incentivized to add the latest features only on wallets that will connect directly to their nodes so that they can profit from you using their product.

If it is free, you are the product.

Phoenix and Muun may support the latest features because those wallets connect only to the developer's nodes, meaning they get to force you into connecting only to their nodes and, as such, can charge you a higher fee on routing your payment, not to mention they will know your money movements, so you lose privacy, and since they know your money movements, not only they collect fees. Still, they get to allocate liquidity more efficiently because you tell them where you want to send your money. Second-generation wallets are just a fee on users, especially if those wallets don't let you connect to other nodes. And those that let you link to other nodes will work slower because they don't have any business coming from you, and you can choose to use other nodes.

Back to getting rekt.

My node was offline, and the preimage invoice expired, so I lost my money for not being online. And my wallet software doesn't support the latest Watchtower features, and if I want that, I must move my node to a wallet connected to the developers directly. They can profit from creating the software by charging me routing fees. Or I could be a custodian like the Wallet of Satoshi.

I am trying to use the Lightning Network as you are supposed to without custodians. Lesson learned: next time I use a preimage invoice that may get refunded, I better be online or use a custodian to make sure my money doesn't disappear. I will admit running LN is a geeky thing, but it is not worth me losing money over it. To run your remote node, you must understand what you are doing, and public nodes are even more challenging and involve even more risks.

And if LN is not ready, that means RSK is in an even worst position because RSK is trying to be a sidechain of a network that barely works. Its main layer relies on a second layer that is not production-ready and that developers are not incentive to add features if you are not paying their bills one way or another. Second-generation LN wallets are just a front for developers to charge users for using their software in the form of LN routing fees. It wouldn't surprise if Zap Wallet never adds watchtower options and Eclair Mobile with Pheonix does.

Now that I understand how I got rekt, it is time to change my wallet to one where I have the Watchtower option, so I am looking on the internet right now and will write once I find one that has what I need.

UPDATE!!

I contacted my other party by reaching out with an email, and the channel now reflects the amount lost. That was a close call. It means I need a Watchtower so that this doesn't happen in the future, but the LN development is a mess, and wallets that support Watchtowers are missing other features. Some like BWl on android can't open channels because of static bugs/issues.

So I can continue to use Zap Wallet, but I must be careful when using it, especially if I will use preimage invoices that may come back to me later, to avoid the issue I just had.

I am a very open-minded person, and I am willing to try, but can you ask the same of others? Will people be willing to gamble like I did when using my money? This is why coins like Bitcoin Cash and others are still a thing because they fix this very quickly on-chain by just increasing the block size. So far, price tells us that people are willing to put up with BTC and LN issues but for how long?