Estimation of all expenses from node data

[saubyk]

Need an accurate assessment of expenses made on all the node operations. This information will be used to assess the profitability of node operation, which is an especially important metric for routing node operators.

The assessment of the expenses will be done via two different methods:

1. One time run when RTL is run on the lightning implementation for the first time. This step should scan all the transaction data on the node to determine the expenses made thus far.
2. Every time an on-chain operation is performed or a lightning payment is made.

The operations which need to be tracked:

• Fee paid on channel open
• Fee paid on channel close
• Routing Fee paid on payments made (this is important to track if payments are made for circular rebalancing)

This would require a local database to be created for RTL. All the expense entries have to made in the local database, which will be used for profitability reporting.

[yik77]

this is really good proposal.

[hieblmi]

Alternatively you could offer a simpler interims solution that does not require a DB. You could show in an additional report tab the difference between the routing fees and transactions paid - received. I've tried to sketch it out here: https://github.com/Ride-The-Lightning/RTL/issues/921

This wouldn't take channel opening fees and non-rebalancing payments into account but that could be addressed in a description on the tab.