In less than a week got my LND Casa Node running, channels funded, first trial payments, and finally my Blockstream stickers are here :)

Process was simple: - Buy Casa Node: I have several rpi, linux user for years, and can build myself, but wanted to try this product. - Wait..., delivery was fast but it got stuck in customs for 1 month until I paid taxes. This made the thing a bit more expensive than it should be, but it's ok. Would be great to see EU distributors soon. - Unboxing: carefully open and behold the "beast" for a moment of truth - Plug it to power and network, find it's IP address, config Port forwarding in my router. - Wait..., connect to your node @http://casa.local (yes, annoying no secure local connection) and take a rest until the blockchain sync up to latest blocks. With the +1month delivery time, including customs, this only took 1.5 days to sync up, not so bad. - Sent some BTC to the Casa Node BTC wallet. - Used half of the BTC to open 5 manual Channels with known LN nodes (LNBig and so forth), several funding sizes I choose. - Allowed Autopilot to manage half of the funds and open Channels using it's own logic. This works, but I guess it can and will improve in future. I feel more comfortable with manual channel setup. Feel free to open channels with me, it's a 24x7 node: 027be164a1ce7cca51a9fbfa2ce7d833dee7ee18827f4121e84e8132a2bd782418 - When the first channel was Opened, I went to store.blockstream.com and bought some stickers using the Casa Node LN wallet to pay for them. - Transaction happened in seconds off-chain, got my email confirming the PO, and finally the stickers are here. Even the envelop is cool :D - Since then I have made several other LN payments, all went well but one which at a first attempt couldn't find a route, but in second try it went through smoothly as expected. https://i.redd.it/wu6qdu903qd21.png ​ submitted by /u/soyc76 [link] [comments]