How net earners got their incomming channels?

Question

Lighting looks good for net spenders:

1. download node/wallet
2. lock your funds by openning channel to some hub
3. spend until has something in channel
4. close it

All costs like channel fees and locked funds goes to funder/spender.

But what in case of net earners (shops like bitrefill) another party should lock their funds and pay fees to deliver funds. I don't found answer in Lighting RFC, it seems like it should be whole OTC market with Banks/Hubs and unsafe protocols. Net earners should pay someone to lock their moneys by opening channel in their direction.

Inspired by: https://medium.com/failsafe/why-lightning-and-raiden-networks-will-not-work-d1880e4bc294

Answer 1

Merchants get channels from customers who want to transact with them. This isn't something that needs to be specified; if someone wants to transact with you over LN, they can open a channel with you. This is how many transactions currently happen over LN - the customer opens a LN channel with the receiver. Furthermore, autopilot modes like the one used by LND will automatically open and close channels to various nodes so nodes that accept incoming channels will likely have connections from others where autopilot connected to it.