Swim With The Tide (swtt)

Summary

Swim With The Tide is a simple python script that decrements the ppm on your channels when they're inactive for a given period of time.

Operations Summary:

1. It uses SQLite3 to keep track of forwarding and channel infomation.
2. The SQLite3 database file is swtt.db in the /home/swtt/swtt directory.
3. Deleting swtt.db will reset all channel PPM's to the specified starting value (--starting_ppm).
4. The max HTLC size will be 99% of local balance (This could be optional parameter in future release)
5. The base fee is set to 0, zero base fee is important for an optimized LN: https://youtu.be/WoVPkmT3gjY?t=2220
6. The CLTV (Time Lock Delta) is 144 by default (Could be optional parameter in future)
7. The current state of all channels is saved in the CSV swtt_current_channel_info.csv.
8. Script actions and errors are logged to swtt.log in the same directory as the script
9. Channel ID's listed in the swtt.ignore file are ignored and not updated.

Manual run example: swtt.py -s 100 -t 1d -d 10 -m 5

Parameters

Required

-s or --starting_ppm Starting PPM for all new channels expressed as an integer.
      (e.g. -s 100 will start the channels at 100 ppm)

-t or --stale_time Stale time before decrementing the ppm expressed as a string in days or hours.
      (e.g. -t 2d or -t 48h will decrement the ppm when the channel hasn't forwarded an HTLC for 2 days)

-d or --decrement_ppm The amount to decrement the ppm expressed as an integer.
      (e.g. -d 10 will decrement all channels by 10 ppm for every stale time cycle that passes without a forward)

-m or --min_ppm The minimum ppm a channel should be (ppm floor) expressed as an integer.
      (e.g. -m 5 will ensure your channel charges at minimum 5 ppm, it won't go lower than this)

Setup

Install dependencies

Review, edit and run the setup.sh file based on your distribution, or simply run the commands one at a time. The main things that need to be setup are:

1. Add the user "swtt" and give it access to the "lnd" and "bos" groups
2. Give "swtt" group access to your admin user
3. Install Python and Virtual-Env
4. Create the "swtt" virtual environment inside of the home dir (/home/swtt/)
5. Activate Python and install required packages via pip
6. Upload swtt.py to the virtual environment directory (/home/swtt/swtt/)

Install Cron Job

I suggest running the script every 30 minutes to 1 hour.

As the swtt user: crontab -e
*/30 * * * * cd /home/swtt/swtt && /home/swtt/swtt/bin/python3.9 /home/swtt/swtt/swtt.py -s 100 -t 1d -d 10 -m 5

Logging

Logs are stored in the same folder as the script: /home/swtt/swtt/swtt.log