<p>The good samaritan (&quot;Sam&quot;) would indeed not lose money per se. However, if there are no fees on Sam’s channels, some channels may get lopsided as only one direction does not cost fees. For the channels to remain useful, either Sam or his counterparties may need to spend additional funds to rebalance the channels.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-17T14:25:10.247Z
2024-06-17T14:25:10.247Z
Murch
<p>Every lightning node charges fees to route payments. This is I assume because running a node costs electricty and effort. But I was wondering, since bitcoin fees are not incurred after a channel is created and before it is closed, there is no technical cost to running a lightning node. So let's say some good samaritan with has 50BTC burning a hole in his pocket. Considering he's absolutely loaded, he takes that money, sets up a lightning node and routes payments for absolutely no fee, neither base fee nor transaction fees (presumably becoming the most popular node in the process). Could he do that without incurring any costs, aside from closing and opening channels (for which he would charge incurr fees to pay bitcoin miners). Or is there still some way he looses money simply for routing transactions?</p>

<lightning-network><ln-channel-balance-management>
Is there any reason a lightning node could not be ran without fees?
user2741831
# Is there any reason a lightning node could not be ran without fees?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-06-14)

Every lightning node charges fees to route payments. This is I assume because running a node costs electricty and effort. But I was wondering, since bitcoin fees are not incurred after a channel is created and before it is closed, there is no technical cost to running a lightning node. So let's say some good samaritan with has 50BTC burning a hole in his pocket. Considering he's absolutely loaded, he takes that money, sets up a lightning node and routes payments for absolutely no fee, neither base fee nor transaction fees (presumably becoming the most popular node in the process). Could he do that without incurring any costs, aside from closing and opening channels (for which he would charge incurr fees to pay bitcoin miners). Or is there still some way he looses money simply for routing transactions?

**Tags:** lightning-network, ln-channel-balance-management


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-06-17. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The good samaritan ("Sam") would indeed not lose money per se. However, if there are no fees on Sam’s channels, some channels may get lopsided as only one direction does not cost fees. For the channels to remain useful, either Sam or his counterparties may need to spend additional funds to rebalance the channels.


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