To buy BTC, I continue to transfer a fixed CHF amount via a standing order to Kraken, buy BTC with it and transfer BTC via Lightning Network to my mobile Exodus wallet. I might deposit EUR instead if there is an excess left after vacations, but the procedure is basically the same.
I have also wrote that I am exploring options for depositing accumulated BTC to my base layer BTC address and testing mobile Phoenix Lightning wallet (https://phoenix.acinq.co/), specifically the transfer of BTC from the Lightning Network to the BTC base layer. Recently there was a period of lowish BTC fees and I have used Phoenix to transfer BTC accumulated in the Lightning wallet of Exodus to the BTC base layer.
The Lightning transfer of BTC from mobile Exodus wallet (Wallet of Satoshi inside) to Phoenix wallet requires a BTC mining fee. This is because Phoenix is a “true self-custodial” wallet and there are no channels already opened. Phoenix shows the expected fee for opening a new channel (essentially, for depositing funds into the wallet) and you can also put a limit on how much is allowed to be deducted as a mining fee. My target was to pay not more than 0.1% of the transferred amount. Obviously, I can either accumulate longer or wait for a period with lower mining fees.
The procedure is following.
- First setup in Phoenix the maximum channel open fee that you are ready to pay:
Settings → “Channel Management”.
Select “Automated channel management”.
Set “Max fee amount”.
The same place shows an estimation of the current deposit fee.
- Open “Receive” in Phoenix, “Lightning” tab is the first one that opens by default.
If you press “Edit” and put some amount to transfer, Phoenix shows a warning if the current fee limit is too low.
If you press this warning, you can also see the estimation of the current deposit fee.
- Copy Lightning link (lnbc1…).
A transfer from Exodus worked without an indicated amount (Edit), but, for example, to deposit BTC from Kraken to Exodus, I have to indicate the amount to transfer, otherwise it fails.
- Open Exodus, Lightning wallet.
Select “Send”, paste the link (Invoice or Address).
Select the amount you want to send if not set (all). Continue until it is send.
- After transferring BTC to Phoenix via Lightning, open “Send”, select “Manual Input”, input BTC address on the base layer.
Probably a QR code can be also scanned.
Press OK.
- Then, you can select what fee you are going to pay for a transfer from a Lightning channel to BTC base layer.
I did this step just after depositing and have selected a fee in sat/vbyte which is just enough to fit my transaction in the next block (https://mempool.space/).
If you have managed to transfer funds to Phoenix cheaply, the second step should be not more expensive than the deposit.
- Send the transaction. It should be confirmed in the first block.
The whole procedure resulted in a total transaction fee of less than 0.2% and, most importantly, I was able to avoid using an exchange, that means depositing BTC via Lightning Network and withdrawing to the base level address.