Accepting micropayment donations via Lightning Network - what is the most efficient / recommended architecture? The difficulty that I am experiencing at the moment - how to accept Lightning Network micropayments donations supporting (shameless plug): https://genesis.re/wiki#Plan_B

Zap / Joule:


I send on-chain BTC to lightning enabled wallet
I open a channel
I do not have inbound capacity to receive lightning payments, need to spend first


(two on-chain transactions and spending money first feels like too much)

Blue Wallet / Bitlum:


they say these are custodial wallets
I do not understand how do they work 
is my account balance a cell in a database?


(feel free to educate me - comment section -  in the inner workings of custodial wallets)

Bitrefill

This seems reasonable, created by a reputable organization:

https://www.bitrefill.com/thor-lightning-network-channels


  If someone's looking to receive bitcoin, as tips or other earnings, this is a quick and easy tool to get started. 


Maybe there is something better available?

Maybe there is a better way?

EDIT / UPDATE

Exchange sats on Lightning Network into BTC on-chain so to have inbound capacity?


https://lightningconductor.net/invoice



  Use this form to extract credit from your Lightning Channel and turn into BTC. Enter the Bitcoin address you want the funds sent to and amount you want to extract.



https://zigzag.io (temporarily out of supply)
I was able to signup and accept Lightning payment in 2 minutes: https://www.opennode.co/


  OpenNode is the easiest way to accept bitcoin.


It was easy. Looking no further. And they offer API: https://developers.opennode.co/



I admit I've spent a little bit too much analyzing which VPS and what hardware requirements. The process of configuring everything from scratch is daunting, wish there was a 1-click install: https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/issues/3159

Something similar to: https://medium.com/lightning-power-users/windows-macos-lightning-network-284bd5034340 (unfairly easy, no excuses not to run a full node)