Create inbound liquidity

To create inbound liquidity on an existing channel (to be able to receive payments) can simply pay a merchant accepting Lightning and receive the product or receive the sats back on-chain.

To pay for various gift cards with lightning check out Bitrefill (referral link).

Dual funded channels

Core Lightning dual funded channels on the protocol level

Manual coordination on LND with Balance of Satoshis

github.com/alexbosworth/balanceofsatoshis
[Guide needed]

Buy inbound channels

Comparison table of lightning channel markets

channelmarkets.md

Blocktank from Synonym

https://x.com/Synonym_to/status/1747615808010752199 can also works through Bitfinex, video here

Voltage Flow

Buy a sidecar channel through Voltage Flow from Lightning Pool
blog.voltage.cloud/introducing-flow/

Lightning Pool

Buy incoming channels on a permissionless marketplace: https://pool.lightning.engineering/
Usage notes: pool.md

Sats4Likes

Post an advert and pay satoshis for incoming channels.

Thor: Lightning Channel-Opening Service by Bitrefill.com

Pay with Lightning for an inbound channel of up to 16 000 000 satoshis.

LNBIG.com

Buy incoming channels from https://twitter.com/lnbig_com

Ask for incoming channels

lightningnetwork.plus

Claim your node on LN+ and join a channel swap for free

LightningTo.me

Opens a channel for free funded with 2 000 000 satoshis. Need to have 10 channels open already to use this service. Add their node as a peer if connecting from behind Tor: $ lncli connect 03bb88ccc444534da7b5b64b4f7b15e1eccb18e102db0e400d4b9cfe93763aa26d@138.68.14.104:9735

Join a community

PLEBNET - KYCjelly.com plebnet.wiki/wiki/Welcome_to_Plebnet
Rings of Fire How to join a ring

Swap out - trustless

Pay with Lightning and receive onchain.

Lightning Loop

Lightning Loop is a non-custodial service offered by Lightning Labs to bridge on-chain and off-chain Bitcoin using submarine swaps.

In the current iteration of the Loop software, two swap types are supported:

Loop Out: off-chain to on-chain. The Loop client sends funds paid on Lightning to a Bitcoin address.
Loop In: on-chain to off-chain. The Loop client sends funds paid on-chain to a Lightning channel.
Max swap amount: 4 200 000 sats

Example usage for lowest cost (leads to longer confirmation time (estimation for 25 blocks) and higher failure rate (max routing fee 500 sats) - adjust the numbers accordingly): loop out --conf_target 25 --max_swap_routing_fee 500 4200000 [optional external address]

   loop out [command options] amt [addr]

  # --channel value               the 8-byte compact channel ID of the channel to loop out (default: 0)
  # --addr value                  the optional address that the looped out funds should be sent to, if let blank the funds will go to lnd's wallet
  # --amt value                   the amount in satoshis to loop out (default: 0)
  # --conf_target value           the number of blocks from the swap initiation height that the on-chain HTLC should be swept within (default: 6)
  # --max_swap_routing_fee value  the max off-chain swap routing fee in satoshis, if let blank a default max fee will be used (default: 0)
  # --fast                        Indicate you want to swap immediately, paying potentially a higher fee. If not set the swap server might choose to wait up to 30 minutes before publishing the swap HTLC on-chain, to save on chain fees. Not setting this flag might result in a lower swap fee.

https://lightning.engineering/loopapi

Boltz.exchange

Fee: 0.5% both ways

Swap out - trusted

deezy.io

Swap instantly to get inbound liquidity.

API: https://docs.deezy.io/

Get the terms for testnet:

curl -X GET https://api-testnet.deezy.io/v1/swap/info -H "Accept: */*"

Pay the returned invoice to make a testnet swap:

curl -X POST https://api-testnet.deezy.io/v1/swap -H "Accept: */*" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data-binary @- <<DATA
{
  "amount_sats": 100000,
  "on_chain_address": "tb1qr52ajdmyeakwmnelt2c8gg7k6e7v9d0km564n9",
  "on_chain_sats_per_vbyte": 2
}
DATA

No longer available ChainMarket

A Lightning to onchain swap market with batched transactions. Fee: 0.5%

Send to a mobile wallet

Most can send to an onchain address afterwards for a fee (swap out).

Self-custodial wallets

Run a separate LN node on your phone or desktop where you can move some funds, so remote balance/ inbound liquidity is created

Breez
A mobile wallet which creates a 1 million sats incoming channel automatically, so funds can be moved over in minutes after setting up.
Sending the funds out to a bitcoin address on-chain costs 0.5% with Boltz
Phoenix
Easy to use mobile wallet from Acinq.
Blixt wallet
A non-custodial open-source Lightning Wallet for Android and iOS with a focus on usability and user experience.
OBW -Open Bitcoin Wallet
The Open Bitcoin Wallet (OBW) is an Android Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, a fork of Simple Bitcoin Wallet focused on providing a pleasant and simple experience with advanced features.
Muun Wallet
An easy-to-use cross platform ochain wallet capable of swapping in an out to lightning.

Custodial wallets

Pay yourself via LN and benefit from the inbound liquidity created.

The drawback is that you don't control the keys of your custodial wallet.

Examples:

Lightning Node Management