lnd SendPayment "unable to find a path to destination"

Question

I got an error "unable to find a path to destination" when I call SendPayment to an invoice, created at starblocks.acinq.co, from my local private LND node on mac (docker).

It seems getinfo and getnetworkinfo are no problem. Am I missing something? (e.g. open port or connect channel) How can I debug it?

• my local private LND node

# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 getinfo
{
    "version": "0.6.1-beta commit=v0.6.1-beta-21-g863bf2f91b245afd58c8edc078a171a55e48f931",
    "identity_pubkey": "02a5d8c2fa771570cefd4ab00be298daffca4d64c77cfc8a0d411a6c1b638cc092",
    "alias": "02a5d8c2fa771570cefd",
    "num_pending_channels": 0,
    "num_active_channels": 0,
    "num_inactive_channels": 0,
    "num_peers": 3,
    "block_height": 1517489,
    "block_hash": "00000000000000723b9b81a3d7433385eec9e03fe1ecff2a3ea850171f70f639",
    "best_header_timestamp": 1558348537,
    "synced_to_chain": true,
    "testnet": true,
    "chains": [
        {
            "chain": "bitcoin",
            "network": "testnet"
        }
    ],
    "uris": null
}

# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 getnetworkinfo
{
    "graph_diameter": 0,
    "avg_out_degree": 6.239715591670899,
    "max_out_degree": 775,
    "num_nodes": 1969,
    "num_channels": 6143,
    "total_network_capacity": "48768373513",
    "avg_channel_size": 7938852.924141299,
    "min_channel_size": "4000",
    "max_channel_size": "16777216",
    "median_channel_size_sat": "5000000"
}

• invoice created at starblocks.acinq.co

https://starblocks.acinq.co/order/75c4e1cceefa2b59c49890f1e5466680

---

Update 1:

The problem was solved. Thank you Rene. (I will try to send via lndhub again)

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 walletbalance
{
    "total_balance": "6610063",
    "confirmed_balance": "6610063",
    "unconfirmed_balance": "0"
}

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 connect 03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134@34.250.234.192:9735
{

}

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 listpeers
{
    "peers": [
        {
            "pub_key": "03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134",
            "address": "34.250.234.192:9735",
            "bytes_sent": "73",
            "bytes_recv": "4449",
            "sat_sent": "0",
            "sat_recv": "0",
            "inbound": false,
            "ping_time": "235186",
            "sync_type": "ACTIVE_SYNC"
        }
    ]
}

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 openchannel --node_key=03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134 --local_amt=1000000
{
    "funding_txid": "3bd6b1824194f40b2d92e46d4035df3d67df9183ae3d18e6c8e1cbbe95258d9d"
}

wait for 3 confirmations...

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 listchannels
{
    "channels": [
        {
            "active": true,
            "remote_pubkey": "03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134",
            "channel_point": "3bd6b1824194f40b2d92e46d4035df3d67df9183ae3d18e6c8e1cbbe95258d9d:0",
            "chan_id": "1668570467812442112",
            "capacity": "1000000",
            "local_balance": "999817",
            "remote_balance": "0",
            "commit_fee": "183",
            "commit_weight": "600",
            "fee_per_kw": "253",
            "unsettled_balance": "0",
            "total_satoshis_sent": "0",
            "total_satoshis_received": "0",
            "num_updates": "0",
            "pending_htlcs": [
            ],
            "csv_delay": 720,
            "private": false,
            "initiator": true,
            "chan_status_flags": "ChanStatusDefault"
        }
    ]
}

bash-4.4# lncli --macaroonpath=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1/chain/bitcoin/testnet/admin.macaroon --rpcserver=localhost:10010 --lnddir=/home/bitcoin/.lnd_1 sendpayment --pay_req=lntb12u1pww90nkpp5lcv7a9lt9ussmupumq420xlchcl9ytatqhel45sxryfnj7wqkpxqdp2xys9xct5da3kx6twv9kk7m3qg3hkccm9ypxxzar5v5cqp599lvp3dlz95htpps87kv4kylp968mgjr5l65afu78yfjtv0p86mpcgvu73hmcmuhkhtjs7m2w9g7lfgvpt3tg0kdlufu69zgn9d6w0sphg0gls
Description: 1 Satoccinamon Dolce Latte
Amount (in satoshis): 1200
Destination: 03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134
Confirm payment (yes/no): yes
{
    "payment_error": "",
    "payment_preimage": "8a1736a5774a3488fbdaeb341d97b3414745a878f58360a7fb1d3851a95eba91",
    "payment_route": {
        "total_time_lock": 1517578,
        "total_amt": 1200,
        "hops": [
            {
                "chan_id": 1668570467812442112,
                "chan_capacity": 1000000,
                "amt_to_forward": 1200,
                "expiry": 1517578,
                "amt_to_forward_msat": 1200000,
                "pub_key": "03933884aaf1d6b108397e5efe5c86bcf2d8ca8d2f700eda99db9214fc2712b134"
            }
        ],
        "total_amt_msat": 1200000
    }
}

Answer 1

You basically already have given the answer. You need to connect to a peer and open a channel with a peer before you can make a payment. On https://api.lightning.community/rest/index.html#ChannelOpenRequest you can read about the syntax for opening a channel. (the same you also works with lncli on the command line. Before you can do that you need to send onchain Bitcoin (or in your case onchain testnet Bitcoin) to your lightning node. There is also a command https://api.lightning.community/rest/index.html#newaddress that generates a new address to which you can send the (testnet)Bitcoin.

On a meta level you might want to open an issue in lnds github asking them to make the error message more specific. You could reference to this discussion.