LIGHTNING-FUNDCHANNEL(7)
========================
:doctype: manpage

NAME
----
lightning-fundchannel - Command for establishing a lightning channel.

SYNOPSIS
--------
*fundchannel* 'id' 'satoshi' ['feerate' 'announce'] ['minconf']

DESCRIPTION
-----------
The *fundchannel* RPC command opens a payment channel with a peer by committing
a funding transaction to the blockchain as defined in BOLT #2.
*fundchannel* by itself does not attempt to open a connection.
A connection must first be established using *connect*.
Once the transaction is confirmed, normal channel operations may begin.
Readiness is indicated by *listpeers* reporting a 'state' of CHANNELD_NORMAL
for the channel.

'id' is the peer id obtained from *connect*.

'satoshi' is the amount in satoshis taken from the internal wallet to fund the channel.
The string 'all' can be used to specify all available funds (or 16777215 satoshi if more is available).
Otherwise, it is in satoshi precision; it can be a whole number, a whole number ending in 'sat', a whole number ending in '000msat', or a number with 1 to 8 decimal places ending in 'btc'.
The value cannot be less than the dust limit, currently set to 546, nor more
than 16777215 satoshi.

'feerate' is an optional feerate used for the opening transaction and as initial feerate for
commitment and HTLC transactions.  It can be one of the strings
'urgent', 'normal' or 'slow' to use lightningd's internal estimates:
'normal' is the default.

'announce' is an optional flag that triggers whether to announce
this channel or not. Defaults to `true`. An unannounced channel
is considered private.

Otherwise, 'feerate' is a number, with an optional suffix:
'perkw' means the number is interpreted as satoshi-per-kilosipa
(weight), and 'perkb' means it is interpreted bitcoind-style as
satoshi-per-kilobyte.  Omitting the suffix is equivalent to 'perkb'.

'minconf' specifies the minimum number of confirmations that used outputs should have. Default is 1.

RETURN VALUE
------------
On success, the 'tx' and 'txid' of the transaction is returned, as well as the
'channel_id' of the newly created channel.
On failure, an error is reported and the channel is not funded.

The following error codes may occur:

* -1. Catchall nonspecific error.
* 300. The maximum allowed funding amount is exceeded.
* 301. There are not enough funds in the internal wallet (including fees) to
       create the transaction.
* 302. The output amount is too small, and would be considered dust.
* 303. Broadcasting of the funding transaction failed, the internal call to
       bitcoin-cli returned with an error.

Failure may also occur if *lightningd* and the peer cannot agree on channel
parameters (funding limits, channel reserves, fees, etc.).

SEE ALSO
--------
lightning-connect(7), lightning-listfunds(), lightning-listpeers(7)

RESOURCES
---------
Main web site: https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning