The latest BTC Lightning drama means fees on @v4vapp have to increase
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This is a value for value post: see the explanation in the footer.
TL;DR
I need to make get this service closer to self sustaining.
The conversion fee from Hive or HBD to or from sats on @v4vapp is going from 50 sats + 1.9% to 50 sats + 2.9%.
You can see the fees on the status page.
Effective as of this post. The flat 50 sats stays the same. Only the percentage moves.
Discount for significant Hive holders and voters to my Witness
I'm considering this, let me know in the comments what you think!
Why the bump
Lightning network fees (within the network, not BTC main chain costs) have gone up. A solid chunk of that is down to Boltz taking their swap services offline indefinitely.
They posted yesterday:
Update: Boltz will stay disabled until further notice.
...
Over the past months we have seen a steady rise in automated, AI-assisted probing of our infrastructure, and we have dealt with several exploits. ... attackers now iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch. ... we cannot responsibly re-enable Boltz swaps...
Full thread here: https://x.com/Boltzhq/status/2084311537502630319
Boltz was one of the main non-custodial pipes for moving between on-chain, Lightning and Liquid. With that API gone (and no short-term return expected), routing and liquidity get tighter and more expensive for everyone running a real node. My node is no exception.
On top of that there is the Coldcard hardware-wallet mess. A long-standing firmware flaw (seed entropy that was far weaker than it should have been) has already led to tens of millions in BTC being swept. The general fear and uncertainty that creates does not help channel liquidity or fee markets either.
None of this makes Boltz or Coinkite villains. They are dealing with the same reality the rest of us are. For @v4vapp it simply means the cost of moving sats around has risen, so the fee has to rise a little to stay honest.
Voltage
On top of this I've just had to go through the considerable sat expense of closing and opening channels and shutting down my old Voltage node.
What this means in practice
- Converting Hive/HBD → sats: 50 sats + 2.9%
- The reverse direction (Keepsats → Hive/HBD) is the same.
- Sending and receiving Keepsats (without conversion) is the same.
- Minimums and rate limits stay the same.
I still do not make a profit on this. Hosting alone sits around $150/month (I've cut some things) and user fees have never covered close to that. This change just stops the gap getting wider while Lightning remains more expensive than it was a week ago.
What you should do
Nothing dramatic. If you were planning a conversion in the next day or two, the old rate is already gone. Treat the new number as the current one and carry on.
If you hold Keepsats, they are still yours to move whenever you need them. Same as before.
No drama, just reality
Costs went up because a key piece of Lightning infrastructure went offline and the wider network is jumpy after the Coldcard sweeps. I am passing a portion of that through so the gateway can keep running without digging a deeper hole every month.
I want to keep @v4vapp open. Comments under this post are the best place if anything is unclear.
Value for Value
For the last few months while building @v4vapp I was generously supported by the DHF. Going forward I have a much more modest support which covers direct server costs and a little of my time.
If you appreciate the work I do on and around Hive, you can express this directly: upvoting posts on Hive is great. Also consider a direct donation (there's a Tip button on Hive or a Lightning Address) on all my posts.
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I am still a bit confused. As lower liquidity usually meant lower fees. The more traffic the fees would go up. But at this point the Bitcoin traffic is almost at yearly lows.
Sorry I was a bit unclear: fees for transfers within the Lighting network. Not fees on the BTC main network which are rock bottom 1 sat/Vb most of the time.
Hobby routing has almost gone away and the only thing left are large nodes like the big exchanges, they're not very friendly for routing small payments.
I'll update the main text.
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Self sustainability has its costs, understandable.
Is the integration with magi still happening?
It's largely done. You can move sats into and out of Magi with V4V.app. Look back and you'll see in instructions in my blog posts.
Thanks, I really appreciate V4V.
Do what should be done....about the discount...well it is a service that only you provide, so if it is viable to offer a discount is your decision! But good that you remiinded that you are a witness, not sure why I didn't add you to my list, sorry for not voting you before.
@brianoflondon Something broke again.
Processing error: ⚡ lnbc1500u1p48u Payment failed: FAILURE_REASON_NO_ROUTE 0400_164de0_1 | § 0400_164de0_1 | Thank you for using v4v.app