Unlocking a remote LND instance via Zap

[khoslaventures]

Remote Wallet Unlocking

One thing I noticed is that in order use Zap on a remote lnd node, the wallet needs to be unlocked on the server running lnd. I was not too sure until @JimmyMow pointed it out to me on Slack (thanks!).

Easy Solution: Add Error Message

There was no error message to really understand that this was a problem, so if a user is expected to unlock a wallet before connecting to their remote lnd via Zap, then this should be mentioned in the interface.

Better Solution: Screen for Unlocking Wallet Remotely

That said, being able to do the equivalent of lncli unlock via RPC calls in the interface would be nice if for some reason your lnd service had to restart and you want to minimize interaction with a remote server on the user end, and it would not require some kind of error message to instruct the user to unlock their wallet.

Improving the UX for those running remote instances

As a side note, I think it's good to encourage users to run their own remote instances of lnd. If I'm not mistaken, if you have a malicious party on the other side you want your lnd instance live and ready to close the channel.