Pool usage notes

Read through the documentation and the resources below.

The best place to search for commands and keywords: https://lightning.engineering/poolapi

Follow https://twitter.com/LightningPool for an (unofficial) list of past batches and curated content.

The Pool install script for the RaspiBlitz is in this PR:

# download
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openoms/raspiblitz/pool/home.admin/config.scripts/bonus.pool.sh
# inspect the script
cat bonus.pool.sh
# install
bash bonus.pool.sh on

clearing_price_rate

The uniform clearing price rate in parts per billion of the batch. It equals to the lowest included bid rate in the batch.

ratings

Returns the current Node Tier of a node, along with other information.

By default nodes listed in the Bos Score list are used to fill the bids, called TIER_1 in the ratings. They are shortlisted according to: up time, inbound capacity, history, channel updates, ability to actively route (via probing).

• Check for a rating of a public node:

    pool auction ratings [NODE_PUBKEY]

• The check the rating of the local node:

    $ pool auc r $(lncli getinfo|grep "identity"|cut -d'"' -f4)
    {
        "node_ratings": [
            {
                "node_pubkey": "REDACTED_NODE_PUBKEY",
                "node_tier": "TIER_1"
            }
        ]
    }

• A channel buyer (Taker) can specify a bid to accept all tiers with --min_node_tier 0

   --min_node_tier value          the min node tier this bid should be matched with, tier 1 nodes are considered 'good', if set to tier 0, then all nodes will be considered regardless of 'quality' (default: 0)

nextbatchinfo

Returns information about the next batch the auctioneer will perform.

Shows:

• fee_rate_sat_per_kw: what the target fee rate cut off will be

• clear_timestamp: the blockheight of the next marker clearing attempt

$ pool auction nextbatchinfo

Example:

{
    "conf_target": 35,
    "fee_rate_sat_per_kw": "27714",
    "clear_timestamp": "1604406782"
}

For your order to be included in the next batch the fee_rate_sat_per_kw should be above the cut off value.

List the fee_rate_sat_per_kw of your orders with:

$ pool orders list | grep fee_rate_sat_per_kw

auction snapshot

Returns information about a prior batch such as the clearing price and the set of orders included in the batch. The prev_batch_id field can be used to explore prior batches in the sequence, similar to a block chain.

last batch info: $ pool auction snapshot

query the prior batches recursively:

# get the previous batch id
prev_batch_id=$(pool auc s |jq -r '.prev_batch_id')

# show the prior batch (just repeat the line to show the past batches)
prev_batch_id=$(pool auc s --batch_id $prev_batch_id|jq -r '.prev_batch_id') && pool auc s --batch_id $prev_batch_id

# show only the clearing price of the prior batch recursively:
prev_batch_id=$(pool auc s --batch_id $prev_batch_id|jq -r '.prev_batch_id') && pool auc s --batch_id $prev_batch_id|jq -r '.clearing_price_rate'

Search the txid of a batch on http://1ml.com after it is confirmed (channels opened and published) to see the details of the channels and peers involved. https://twitter.com/openoms/status/1326482404224229376

logs

Monitor the pool logs in: /home/pool/.pool/logs/mainnet/poold.log

Example:

tail -f -n 1000 /home/pool/.pool/logs/mainnet/poold.log

Resources

• Documentation: https://pool.lightning.engineering/

• Source code: https://github.com/lightninglabs/pool

• API reference: https://lightning.engineering/poolapi

• Unofficial curated info on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LightningPool

• Lightning Wiki page: https://lightningwiki.net/index.php/Lightning_Pool

• Pool release thread from @roasbeef : https://twitter.com/roasbeef/status/1323299990916063232

• LNmarkets newletter about Pool: https://lnmarkets.substack.com/p/15-november-9th-2020

• Technical Deep Dive blogpost: https://lightning.engineering/posts/2020-11-02-pool-deep-dive/

• Whitepaper: https://lightning.engineering/lightning-pool-whitepaper.pdf