Using the Flow Dashboard
The Flow Dashboard is a simple an intuitive way to generate sidecar tickets described in the Flow and Pool: An Introduction doc.
After you make an account and sign in, navigate to the Flow dashboard by clicking Flow or by visiting https://flow.voltage.cloud. Once there, you will see the following menu:
Credit shows if your account has any existing funds that can be put towards any fees for generating a channel ticket. You then have the option to redeem a coupon if you have one, or to create a new channel order.
Pool Market Info shows you at a glance how the Lightning Pool service orders look. For future reference, an ask means an order that is trying to sell liquidity, and a bid is an order that is trying to acquire liquidity. Flow by Voltage is for the bid side. In order to sell liquidity you can do so directly from Lightning Terminal or the Pool Daemon.
Orders shows your current orders (if any). You can have multiple orders active.
After you click New Channel, you will be brought to the following screen:
Capacity is the amount of inbound liquidity you are looking to acquire.
Self Channel Balance is the amount of liquidity you would like to have on your side (local/outbound) of the channel. This is optional.
Node Tier corresponds to the quality of node that may match with your order. If you choose Any, then it is possible to be matched with a poorly connected node. If you choose Best, then you will be matched with a Tier 1 Lightning Labs rated node.
Basis Points (BPS) is an optional field that you can use to define the fee you pay for the channel. For reference, 100 BPS = 1%. If left blank, the amount will be an average of previous orders, which will be shown on the next screen.
After you click Get Quote, you will be brought to the following screen:
This screen shows you the Capacity you have already chosen, along with your BPS rate, which if left blank will be automatically chosen based on historical average. Self balance, if defined is also shown. Pool fee is the fee to use lightning pool, and total fee is the pool fee plus the voltage fee. Click create.
On this final screen, you will see all the data pertinent to your order. A note on Lease Duration: this is the minimum amount of blocks your matched peer providing the liquidity is obligated to keep the channel open for. You may close the channel at any time, though. When happy with the order, click Pay.
Now you may pay the fee invoice with either Lightning or On-Chain. For those without bitcoin, we recommend using an app like Strike, which pays bitcoin and lightning invoices with fiat. After the invoice is paid, you will get your sidecar ticket! The QR code will change to your ticket code. Click the QR code to copy it. This ticket can be redeemed by you or given to someone else. It's totally up to you what to do with your ticket.
There are currently two ways to redeem a sidecar ticket. One is through the Pool commands directly in a terminal. The other is with the Lightning Terminal interface, either the web version or local hosted version. For this guide, we will be using Lightning Terminal to keep everything simple.
To redeem a sidecar ticket from Flow on Lightning Terminal, navigate to the home screen and then click Register Sidecar Channel.
This button is located next to the Loop button below your channel capacity.
After that, you will see the following:
Paste the Sidecar Ticket in the box on the right and click next and then click confirm.
You're all set!
After you register your ticket, you can go back to your Flow account and see it's status at any time.
Created: Your ticket is created. You can click this to get your ticket again to redeem if you lost it or save it for later.
Submitted: You submitted your ticket to the pool service and are waiting for a match.
Filled: Your order is filled and you now have liquidity.
Last modified 10mo ago