Running a Lightning node in 2025: → Earn: ~$5/month routing fees → Pay: on-chain fees to open channels → Pay: rebalancing fees → Pay: on-chain fees to close channels → Time: 5-10 hrs/week The average node operator loses money. Not because they're bad at it. Because the math was never designed to work for small operators. The nodes that survive are either: a) Companies subsidizing it (River, Voltage, Breez) b) Idealists who stopped counting hours Everyone else quit. That's why channels dropped from 80,000 → 41,000. This isn't a bug. It's the business model. Change my mind.