I am unsure what you imply by the “distant channel”. Should you do not management the channel and also you grant full entry to a 3rd social gathering to handle your Lightning node/channel then the worst they will do is spend all of the Bitcoin in that channel and push the entire capability to the counterparty’s stability within the channel. You possibly can successfully lose all of the Bitcoin you initially locked up within the channel.
Assuming you management the channel, if funds are shifting backwards and forwards within the channel the Lightning safety mannequin depends on observing the blockchain in case your counterparty tries to cheat you by posting a revoked state. Should you do not do that or keep offline for a sustained interval chances are you’ll miss the cheat try and therefore fail to reply throughout the required time window by broadcasting the justice transaction. The quantity of Bitcoin you lose would be the distinction between your present stability within the channel and the stability you had within the revoked state.
In case you are a routing node and never simply an edge node then being offline for a sustained interval may additionally lead to you not incomes routing charges you may have earned in that point. Different Lightning nodes might select to shut channels with you as you have got doubtlessly value them routing charges within the time that you’ve got been offline. Quite than revealing the preimage to the hash of the HTLC in a well timed trend you’ll have locked up capital throughout the route, prevented Lightning nodes from routing different funds and finally require them to shut channels. As a routing node you must actually intention for one hundred pc uptime. As an edge node you’re simply hurting your self in case you are offline for a sustained interval as you may’t obtain funds and you’re giving your counterparty the chance to cheat you.