🇪🇸 Español | 🇬🇧 English (Github)

First of all, let’s answer this question that many newbies were asking me: What is Alby Hub?

Alby Hub, is a simple LN node interface, with nice NWC functionalities to connect various LN services and be used “on-the-go”. It is NOT a LN node in itself but is offering tools to manage the LN node behind. Is like LNbits or Zeus.

Yes, I know, Alby team already have a nice documentation page about this, their Github repository is also well documented (from there I was inspired too), but with this mini guide I want to bring this information to more people, especially to my readers that maybe will find a bit complicated to read all those instructions. Also my guide is dedicated to a specific setup, that few are talking about: the advanced mode setup.

Also BTC Session made a nice video tutorial, but that one also is taking the simple path of using the Alby Cloud and not the “advanced” path of managing yourself the LN node behind the Alby Hub.

So let’s get started with explaining the modes you can run Alby Hub:

• using Alby Cloud, migrating your existing custodial Alby account

• using a VPS / hosting service with Alby Hub, pointing it to your home /remote LN node

• using a new account, running Alby Hub on your local PC, together with your own LN node. This method also could be run as standalone LN app or as a server, depending on how is your day to day usage.

I was testing (almost) all funding sources for Alby Hub and I will make a classification. I have to mention also that you can run it as a “private node” (not routing) or as a public node (routing) with some more complex steps. In this guide I will talk only about the “private” mode, mode that can be used by all newbies that are not so familiar with the complexities of running a publicly exposed node (domains, SSL certificates, router ports etc).

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

We consider you are a simple user, that do not have any (desktop) LN node, nothing, just want to run in a self-custodial way a simple LN node for your personal needs and maybe later giving some sub-accounts to your family and friends.

• a simple PC, even with 4 GB RAM, recommended Linux OS. Alby Hub works also on Windows machines, but I will not recommend that.

• some basic knowledge of running some command lines in Linux Terminal. Is just copy/paste in fact.

• a mobile phone to connect Alby Go.

SETUP STEPS

STEP 1 - OS

Install Linux on that PC, I would recommend DebianOS (is more stable, if you want to dedicate that machine only to Alby HUB + LN node), but works on any other Linux distribution, even if you have a normal Linux Mint desktop could work perfectly fine. So use whatever other Linux you like.

STEP 2 - PREPARE ALBY FUNDING SOURCE

Start here: https://albyhub.com/ and choose “do it yourself”. Then you will be redirected to login with an existing Alby account (if you want to migrate it to self-custodial) or create a new one, to start a separate one with your new self-custodial instance.

Just create a new one and you will get an invitation code for running your Alby Hub.

Go to “Desktop setup” instructions and download the executable file for the OS you are using. No need to install anything, just run the executable file.

Once you start Alby Hub app, you will be prompted to input an invitation code. If you already have an Alby account (custodial) you can get it from there, but remember that you will migrate everything to your new self-hosted Alby Hub. I would suggest to start with a new Alby registration and once you are asked what type of account you want you can choose self-hosted and get that invitation code, that later you will have to input in the setup of your Alby Hub. Later you can change or personalize the LN address and even use your own domain for that.

Alby Hub is offering a variety of funding sources that you can choose first time you start it. A very easy to use GUI interface, that help you to connect instantly with your LN node behind (funding source).

Reminder: We are talking here ONLY about using the “private node” mode, not public.

Once you start Alby Hub, you will be prompted with this screen, where you have to choose “Advanced setup” if you do not want to use the Alby Cloud option:

Then you will be prompted to choose one of the backend funding source:

1. LDK - The simplest one and straight forward. If you choose that one, it will install automatically a LDK node instance and start right away, going to open one or many channels with the LSPs offered or any other node peer you like. LDK will not use so many resources, being a lightweight LN implementation. Also do not need to run beside a full bitcoin core node, it uses public Esplora servers. If you want to run your personal Esplora server, you have that option too, but you need to dig more into CLI configurations.

2. Phoenixd - Another simple and straight forward funding source for Alby Hub. Only that this one will use the “walled garden” liquidity from Acinq and will charge the 1% fees for that. If you do not want to deal with channels node management, this is a perfect solution.

   Installation of phoenixd is quite simple, just follow these simple command lines: https://phoenix.acinq.co/server/get-started

   Once phoneixd is up and running go to Alby Hub and input the required authorization code for that local server:

   

3. LND - A more complex and robust funding source, that require previous installation before you want to link it to your Alby Hub. Would be nice if Alby team will include an automated installation of LND like the LDK.

   What I would recommend is to install a LND instance in “neutrino mode” on the same machine where are you going to run Alby Hub. In this way you do not require to run also a heavy bitcoin core node, with full blocks that will eat up almost all the machine resources. And don’t worry, the “neutrino mode” is not a “privacy concern”, neutrino is only delivering blocks data filters, do not read any xpub or addresses, IPs etc. It is used also by Zeus (embedded), Blixt, Breez.

Installing lnd from source

With the preliminary steps completed, to install lnd, lncli, and all related dependencies run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd
cd lnd
make install

The command above will install the current master branch of lnd. If you wish to install a tagged release of lnd (as the master branch can at times be unstable), then visit the release page to locate the latest release. Assuming the name of the release is v0.x.x, then you can compile this release from source with a small modification to the above command:

git clone https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd
cd lnd
git checkout v0.x.x
make install

For more details about installing and configuring LND instance please read here.

In that document you will also find the following lnd.conf configuration for neutrino mode:

bitcoin.node=neutrino feeurl=https://nodes.lightning.computer/fees/v1/btc-fee-estimates.json

Once the LND is up and running, continue with backing the macaroons and TLS certificate required to connect Alby Hub, those will be necessary in this next step:

Go to /home/user/.lnd/ and open as text file the tls.cert. Copy the HEX code between "begin cerificate and end certificate. Paste it into Alby Hub - "TLS certificate HEX box."

open Terminal and type:

xxd -p -c2000 ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon

You will obtain a HEX code for your macarroon file and paste it into the Alby Hub - "Admin Macaroon box".

LND address - your local LND instance, eg. 127.0.0.1:10009

TLS Certificate - copy the HEX from your tls.cert file

Admin Macaroon - convert in HEX your LND admin.macaroon

4. Cashu Mint - an interesting and damn simple connection as funding source. If you do not want to deal with all above LN nodes, channels management liquidity etc. this is one of the most straight forward and simple solutions.

   YES, is custodial, but if you deal with small amounts, only for donations, nostr zaps, small payments etc, this is enough.

   

   By default is offering the Minibits.cash mint, but you can use whatever other mint you like (see more here: https://bitcoinmints.com), or your own mint if you run one.

   The only concerning part with this funding source is that there’s no way to have backup the tokens or keys for this funding source. Not yet, I am sure the Alby team is working on that. So if your Alby Hub get busted, you do not have a backup of the funds (or I couldn’t find it myself until now).

5. Greenlight / Breez SDK - this is a Greenlight funding source method, based on invitation code and a Breez API key. You can request them here. Greenlight is a “Lightning-as-a-service” node, where the user hold the keys but do not manage the channels liquidity and the server.

   

   

   STEP 3 - START USING YOUR ALBY HUB

   Aaaand that’s it! Once you connect a funding source, you are ready to go and use your Alby Hub, connecting it to various LN apps with NWC, connecting to Alby Go as a mobile wallet, create limited accounts or even act as “uncle Jim” with the special deployment of “Alby Jim”.

   The variety of apps connections is incredible and easy to setup with provided instructions in the interface.

   

MORE RESOURCES:

• Deploy it yourself - Alby Github instructions if you want to run it as server

• A very nice guide about configuring and connecting Alby Hub to Stacker News acccount

• Run your Alby Hub with Nodana (hosting service)

• Run your Alby Hub with Alby Cloud (hosting service)

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

Another copy of DarthCoin guides is on this Github page organized by category.

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Updated 29 Jun 2024

🇪🇸 Español | 🇬🇧 English (Github)

In the previous guide, I wrote a presentation of new Zeus embedded LN node but being too large I couldn't add also these advanced steps for using it.

This guide is for advanced users and only for the SHTF cases, after you consult also with Zeus chat support. The guide was created after I put myself in the situation of a user, using Zeus embedded LN node and doing deliberately some mistakes, to find out solutions to fix the situations. This was reckless testing on mainnet !

I write this guide so YOU WILL NOT DO THESE MISTAKES or avoid them. I already spent a lot of sats in fees and force closing channels doing all these tests.

The guide contain 3 different scenarios:

• Getting started with opening channels

• Migrate your Zeus embedded node to another device

• Old device is dead, database is broken, Zeus node is not starting

Maybe in the future we will have available the option to export / import the whole Zeus node data, without the need to close the LN channels, but right now is not possible this full recovery. I’ve tested this option but is more complicated (using Android adb tools with some CLI commands) and require some changes in Zeus code.

A - Getting started with opening channels

This is a general procedure, used as a regular method to obtain inbound and outbound liquidity for your new Zeus LN node. Many new users do not get it from the start so I will try to explain it step by step.

It is recommended also to read this important guide about LN liquidity.

Thanks to Renè Pickhardt, here is a shot video explaining how channels routing and liquidity works:

1. Install the latest Zeus version, strongly recommend to use Obtainium and NOT from the app store. Please read this guide if you still considering to use an iPhone.

2. Create a new Zeus embedded node in your new device

3. Wait for it to fully sync. Go to Settings → Node Info and see if is synced to chain and synced to graph.

4. At this stage, I recommend to prepare your Zeus node properly:

• Set good neutrino peers. Test the default ones to see the ping response. Depending on your location, some of them will have a long time response. If the ping is higher than 150-200ms, you better remove it from the list and add good ones. Here is a list with worldwide neutrino peers. Make your own list based on the ping and select the option to use only peers from list, not random.

  For US users, the default btcd.lnolymp.us should work fine.

  For EU users, node.blixtwallet.com should have a good ping.

  Or use your own Bitcoin node if you run one. You just have to activate Neutrino in your node and open the port 8333 in your router. No worry, nothing is leaked from your node, you are only delivering block filters to your Zeus. If you want you can share your neutrino node IP with other friends that are using Zeus too.

• Put Zeus in persistent mode. Go to Settings - Embedded - Advanced - select “persistent mode”. When you will start opening channels this option is very useful, because it will maintain the LND service alive and even if you close the app, the service is still running in background and will keep alive the connections.

• Activate EGS (express graph sync) and also activate reset EGS at startup. This could make a bit slow Zeus to start but you always have a fresh updated graph sync.

• Activate LSP, Default is https://0conf.lnolymp.us

• In the same screen, activate simple taproot channels. Later will be useful.

5. Go to Settings → Invoice - click on top right option icon and select “Taproot type of address”. By default is segwit. Taproot is only optional if you want to open Simple Taproot Channels.

6. Go to main screen, swipe to the right the onchain tab and click on receive. It will generate a new Taproot address.

7. Let’s consider that you do not have any other funds in other LN wallets, only from onchain sources. Send to that address all the sats you want to use for opening channels. Put a decent fee, not too low and wait to have 6 confirmations.

8. Once you have the funds confirmed, open your first channel to a well known node, LSP. Do not open with random unknown nodes, choose a good one, for example one from this list.

9. Do not use all your funds ! Always leave an UTXO of like 50-100k for the anchors reserve. In case the mempool fees will increase drastically is better to have a reserve UTXO to be able to push the fees.

OPTION A - You need first more inbound liquidity

This is the option in case you want to use Zeus more for receiving (especially if you use LN Address zeuspay.com) so you will start with an “empty” channel or you can choose also how much you want to have as outbound liquidity.

For this we can use the new LSP Olympus service to buy channels.

You can pay them over onchain or LN, with funds from the same Zeus wallet or any other wallet where you have funds. Then once is paid, Olympus LSP will open a channel towards your Zeus nodeID (see in Zeus Settings - Node ID) with the amounts you choose. Once you hit “Create Order” you can choose also if you want a private or public channel. For Zeus embedded nodes is better to stay on private.

If this is your first channel and your Zeus never connected to Olympus, you should add first the Olympus node as LN peer.

Go to “Channels” screen and hit the “+” button from top right corner. It will open the modal screen to open a new channel. Now, click on the top button to switch to “Connect Peer” (see below image).

You can hit the button “peer to Olympus” or scan the QR code of Olympus node from any LN Explorer, to add its node pubkey into the form. Click connect peer and then go to finish the channel purchasing process.

During this process, is better to keep your Zeus online using the persistent LND mode (see in Settings - Embedded - Advanced settings).

Finish the purchasing channel process and done! In few moment your channel will be ready to receive. If you fill up that channel, you can always swap out from it like 50-80% using an external swap to onchain or moving to other temporary LN wallets until you need back that liquidity.

OPTION B - Advanced opening channels

Opening channels procedure. Let's consider that you will use 2.1M sats and you already moved them all to the new Zeus. And with these 2M sats you want to open 3 channels: Olympus, Blixt, Voltage LSP.

1. We start to open a 1M channel to Blixt node, or any other good node you want. I choose Blixt because I know is a LND node and also is supporting Simple Taproot Channels. You can set that in the opening channel screen, in “Advanced options”.

2. Wait for the channel to confirm and also to have the new UTXO ready (6 conf).

3. Swap out like (50%) 500k to Blink / Alby / CoinOS / Walletano / Lifpay / Sats.Mobi / Wallet of Satoshi / a friend LNbits / BTCpay instance or LNDHUB account or whatever other simple custodial (non-KYC) temporary LN account.

   Why a custodial for this phase? Because it’s easier and faster, without bothering with channels liquidity, swaps etc, you just need a temporary repository.

   It could be in small batches or all at once, but must be all into same destination. The idea is to reuse part of the sats from already opened channels to open a new channel with Olympus LSP.

4. Now, with the rest of 1M sats you still have in your Zeus onchain wallet, open another channel to Voltage or any other good node that accept private channels, see examples here.

5. Repeat the step from point 13, until you will have almost 1M sats in a temporary LN custodial account (or any other LN wallet you have).

6. Once you got around 1M sats into the temporary LN account, open 1M channel with Olympus LSP.

   How to do that? Simply, hit the receive button from Zeus main screen and put 1M sats. It will appear a message on top, that “this transaction will use the LSP and will incur some fees” (around 10k sats).

7. Pay that generated invoice from your temporary LN custodial account. It will be paid to Olympus LSP and the LSP will open a channel towards your Zeus node, pushing all the sats into your side. Will deduct the fee from the total amount you've sent, but also will give you a plus of 100k inbound liquidity, so your channel will be in total 1,1M sats with 990k sats on your side, ready to be spend.

Now you have 3 nice channels, one with 1M outbound liquidity, 2 with 500k inbound and outbound liquidity. So you are ready for sending and receiving.

Why 3 channels with different peers?

• you want reliability, if one peer goes offline or have issues or high fees you can always use alternative routes.

• you can use MPP (multi-part payment), that means your payment can be sent (using the option MPP in the payment screen), through multiple channels, with smaller parts. This could help if the route couldn’t not find a path with enough large liquidity and could take with smaller parts.

• MPP is also good for more privacy in a payment.

• If one channel get almost depleted, you can still have the other two alternatives.

Do the channels backup !

Now is time to make a full backup of your node. Every time you open or close a channel is recommended to do a full backup.

Go to Settings - Embedded node - Disaster recovery.

• be sure the automatic backups are enabled

• do also an export of the data into clipboard. This will create a special encrypted string. Copy it into an external file and keep it safe. This is your LN channels backup that could be used later to recover your funds from LN channels.

• do also the backup to Olympus server. That will keep a copy of this string to the LSP server. It also can be used to recover in case you lost your personal file.

Done. Additionally if you want some more inbound in your new Olympus channel, just move out into the temporary LN accounts or any other external swap services (swapping out into your own onchain addresses), with the amount you expect to receive through this channel. For example if you use the LN Address provided by Zeus (zeuspay.com) you will need some inbound liquidity into this channel with Olympus.

B - Migrate Zeus LN node to a new device

This procedure will require closing old channels.

If you still have your old device and Zeus working well but you want to migrate to another new device it is much better to start fresh, with a new nodeID, new set of keys. Also for less stress in the process of closing channels, small UTXOs, lots of bloated txs history that could load up your wallet.

1. Save your Zeus node seed

2. Use this procedure to import your LND aezeed from old Zeus into Sparrow

3. Coop close all your channels in Zeus and wait until are all confirmed, you will see also the txs into Sparrow

4. Uninstall Zeus from the old device.

5. Follow all the steps from previous scenario “Getting started with opening channels”. With sending the funds from the old Zeus (now imported in Sparrow) to the new Zeus node.

Done, you’ve migrated your old Zeus node into a new device, with a new nodeID.

C - Old device or node is dead

Let's say you had some problems with syncing, channels got force closed, database corrupted, app not responding correctly etc. Shit can happen all the time and in some situations is better to start over, clean, fresh. In any case, before doing these steps, consult with the devs and more experienced users in the Zeus Telegram group. In order to be sure that nothing else can be done, is better to have a second opinion for a correct diagnostic of your problems.

We suppose you already have backup the seed and the channels backup string. We suppose that you cannot coop close the existing channels, database is corrupted or the device is dead, app cannot be open or function properly anymore.

So uninstall Zeus, completely and install it fresh, new, latest version.

1. Open Zeus and in the screen of creating a new node, but select RESTORE.

2. Insert your 24 words seed and also paste the backup channels string.

3. Wait patiently to fully sync and do the recovery process ! It will take several minutes.

4. Try to keep the app alive as much as you can, at least in the initial phase of closing the channels. In this moment you cannot activate the persistent mode because it will require to restart the app and you do not want that to happen in the recovery process. In the future versions this persistent mode will be ON by default for the recovery process.

5. Optional you can go and set better neutrino peers, that do not require to restart, but could help with keeping alive the sync with good peers. See previous scenario A point 7.

6. Go to Channels screen (from main screen, bottom right icon) and switch the central button to "closed / pending” channels. You will see there in few moments that was initiated the force closure of the old channels. Optional you can monitor their closing in mempool.space using the closing txid.

7. In case the channels were closed with a low fee (this could happen sometimes, due to high fees fluctuation and the LND fee estimator didn’t take the right one), you can import your old Zeus seed into Sparrow (see here the instructions) and from Sparrow you bump the fee with CPFP (Child Pay For Parent). Otherwise just wait patiently for channels to be closed. IT COULD TAKE TIME ! Don't freak out, is normal. If there were pending HTLC from previous channels, it could take even 144 blocks or more.

8. DISASTER CASE - DO NOT DO RBF ON PENDING OPENING CHANNELS!

   In case you got a zombie channel, that cannot be opened or closed normally from node UI, you will have to proceed with using the LND chantools. Please read carefully all the scenarios presented in that guide and choose the one that is appropriate for your case.

   How I end up testing a disaster case? Read here so you can avoid my mistakes.

   Here are the most common used cases:

   • Recovering a channel that by mistake you did an RBF instead of CPFP

   • Recovering a zombie channel

   • NOTICE: Keep in mind that chantools do not support yet Taproot channels so this method will work only with regular segwit channels. Open issue here.

9. Once you have all channels closed and funds back to onchain wallet (also checking in Sparrow that all funds are confirmed) you can uninstall Zeus and start fresh, proceeding with the instructions from the previous scenario A “Getting started with opening channels”. Is much better to start with new set of keys and nodeID, database etc.

Zeus Resources Links:

Website | Docs | Github | Releases | Telegram | NOSTR | Twix | Blog

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

Another copy of DarthCoin guides is on this Github page organized by category.

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🇪🇸 Español | 🇭n Hindi 

Lately I was talking with a lot of people asking me questions about how to start with Bitcoin, but the easy way, from zero level and with very limited resources (money, knowledge, infrastructure).

I even wrote a dedicated guide for them “Stacking Sats - The noobs journey” explaining how to start from low level with basic custodial wallet apps and climb slowly the ladder, towards the self-custody apps. But is not enough. Some people even that “journey” they find it hard to do it.

This guide is NOT for those noobs, but for all those “Uncle Jim”s out there, willing to help for more adoption of Bitcoin. And this time will explain a use case how to onboard those noobs, using Ecash with Cashu mints, over Lightning Network (LN).

Let’s be clear: Ecash is NOT replacing LN (as I heard others saying)! Ecash is just an additional protocol that can communicate with LN.

In a previous guide I also explained how these “Uncle Jim”s could run “Private banks over Lightning Network” and what infrastructure they need. So this guide will be an extension of that previous one, with focus on using Cashu mints.

WHAT IS ECASH CASHU MINTS ?

Cashu is a free and open-source Chaumian ecash system built for Bitcoin. Cashu offers near-perfect privacy for users of custodial Bitcoin applications. Nobody needs to knows who you are, how much funds you have, and with whom you transact.

Cashu is a new ecash protocol for custodial Bitcoin applications that is tightly integrated into the Lightning network. An Ecash system consists of two parts, the mint and the ecash wallet. Ecash transactions are untraceable, instant, and require no fees. Cashu is built for Bitcoin. Wallets use the mint's Lightning node for making or receiving Bitcoin payments in exchange for ecash.

A Cashu mint does not know who you are, what your balance is, or who you're transacting with. Users of a mint can exchange ecash privately without anyone being able to know who the involved parties are. Bitcoin payments are executed without anyone able to censor specific users.

Source - Cashu.space

How Ecash works slides - by Gandlaf (very nice and clear animated slides)

So in more simple terms, consider ecash Cashu as digital gift cards, with additional privacy and cryptographic proof of (sats) reserves.

Think about that these tokens are like smaller parts (coins) minted from a bigger reserve of bitcoin. Who is minting these tokens is the banker and this banker is distributing them among his customers.

But keep in mind: THE BANKER IS HAVING THE CUSTODY OF THE SATS! So in order to use these mints, the user still have to put some trust in the minter (banker). The banker cannot create more sats (fractional reserve) than he have in custody, but still can shut down the mint and users cannot redeem their sats anymore.

So the rug-pull danger still exist! So be aware, do not leave all your life savings in these mints and also use only trusted mints.

That’s why in this guide, we will talk about a scenario where “the banker” and the users are from a local community, where they have a certain trust between each others.

WHY WOULD USE SUCH THING AS ECASH?

The situation with Bitcoin (BTC) and Lightning Network (LN) right now, is not favorable with onboarding billions of people, that are not well prepared and this situation will get more complicated until we could find more practical and easier solutions.

Yes, some old bitcoiners will not see any advantage of using this ecash, other than adding some more privacy on top of the existing LN protocol. Those that have already a lot of liquidity in LN channels and various UTXOs in cold storage, this use case will not bring them too many advantages, except if they want to use ecash as a form of coinjoin their income sources. But that is another story.

But for many new Bitcoin users is quite hard to get started with a UTXO directly onchain and from there running sophisticated LN nodes, public or even private nodes. Managing LN liquidity is not so easy for many new users. Yes, they can use a large number of custodial LN wallets / accounts, but those also still could leak a lot of personal information and easily be shut down or limiting access to users funds.

Some important aspects to consider:

• Using Ecash is NOT the ultimate way of using Bitcoin ! Keep in mind that this is more suitable to onboard new users, until they get comfortable and more knowledgeable. Yes, using ecash day to day payments is very useful and cheap, but please DO NOT keep all your sats into a Cashu wallet!

• Between users of the same mint, there are NO FEES. You can send back and forth sats under the same mint, without going to use LN or onchain, remember you are just exchanging IOU digital signatures. This could be a huge advantage for members of local communities, transacting each others.

• Users can pay any other LN wallet (out of the mint), directly from their ecash wallets, but that will be a regular LN payment and will involve the regular LN fees.

• User can redeem the sats out of the mint, ANYTIME, to any of his other LN wallet. But that redeem will involve some fees as a regular LN payment. This redeem will reduce the amount of sats that the banker will have into his “bank” (node). So as a node runner you will have to maintain a good liquidity and enough balance on both sides (inbound and outbound).

• User can make swaps between multiple mints (banks) but also that will involve some fees over LN. Swaps are actually LN payments between two nodes or two mints. Even that the mints are from the same LN node, it could involve fees.

• The “banker” could earn sats from regular LN routing, when the users are cashing out to other of their regular LN wallets. In your LNbits you could also set a fee to be charged for the users wallets (including the mints).

• Ecash mint is ALWAYS custodial ! Once the users start depositing sats into the mint, those sats literally sits into “banker’s” node channels.

  If the banker delete the mint, users cannot redeem anymore their sats.

  If the user lose their backup from their ecash wallets, nobody can redeem those tokens anymore, not even the banker knows how much each user can have. So please make your backups! Each app offer this option.

• The banker will NEVER know who is paying who and also cannot see exactly how much tokens were spent between users. This is very good for privacy. Here is a Ecash Workshop presented by Supertestnet, explaining all these aspects.

USE CASE SCENARIO

LOCAL COMMUNITY MERCHANT

Let’s consider a local grocery store owner that want to help his customers to start using Bitcoin for their shopping:

• S/he still have to pay his suppliers with fiat currency, until also these ones will start accepting BTC.

• the customers DO NOT HAVE ANY SATS but are willing to start using or even stacking some.

• the shop owner is willing to offer discounts to people that are using BTC in his shop

• the shop owner knows what is going to do, this is a serious task and require good knowledge about Bitcoin, LN, liquidity, managing nodes etc. S/He will be the local “banker” that also will have the duty to educate his customers how to use this solution based on Bitcoin and Cashu ecash.

STEPS TO DO AS THE “BANKER”

1. Read and learn how ecash mints are working. Test before use. Start here:

   • https://cashu.space/ | https://docs.cashu.space/

   • LNbits - Webpage | Github | Documentation | SaaS instance - easy to create and manage Cashu mints (I wrote several guides about LNbits, with several use cases).

   • Wallets - eNuts | Minibits | Cashu.me | Nutstash.app | More…

   • Tutorial Cashu.how

2. Run a good public LN node, with good liquidity and maintenance. This is a serious task, do not ignore the maintenance aspect, you are a banker now. I wrote several guides about running routing nodes, please read them:

   • What software could I run for a LN node?

   • Managing Lightning Node Liquidity

   • Lightning Node Maintenance

   • Private banks over the Lightning Network

   • Recommendations for LN users

   • Lightning Routing Fees Experiment

   • Getting started with Umbrel as LN node

   • Lightning Network Submarine Swaps

   • and many more… on my substack

3. On top of your LN node, install LNbits. A powerful apps suite with many extensions useful for a merchant and for the customers.

   In LNbits, you can start creating the Cashu mints, practically you could create various “banks”. With just 2 clicks and selecting a LNbits wallet dedicated for the mint, you can have a “bank” Cashu mint that will manage all the tokens.

   

As you can see, I could use a very descriptive name, that will appear in the user wallet as name of the mint (bank).

You can have various mints, with various destinations, use cases, and assigned to specific LNbits wallets.

Here are some demo examples, I’ve created on the public LNbits demo server:

• Lagarde Bank

• DarthCoin Bank (yes, some people could say that will get some “darthcoins”, but no, mints from this bank are just sats and in order to get some ecash “darthcoins”, you will need to deposit sats first. Is just a funny name for the mint)

Please, remember these are only for testing and demo, DO NOT use them as a regular ecash mint !

Install and run Cashu wallets to familiarize with using ecash and mints. By scanning the QR code displayed for each bank you can open it in Minibits or eNuts apps or just in browser with Cashu.me or Nutstash.app.

4. Create some tokens in your mints (banks). Just by depositing (from any LN wallet) let’s say 100.000 sats into a mint, you will create the same amount of ecash tokens.

!!! Keep in mind that if you want to share / distribute those ecash tokens to other users, you must have imported your mint link into one of those wallets. Each import in a different wallet app will have its own mint amount, but could communicate with other users under the same mint, WITH NO FEES.

This could be a scheme for a scenario where the banker created 3 different mints, for different destinations. It could be just one or many others, is up to you how you organize them.

So, as a “banker”, open your mint into one of those wallets. It will be EMPTY, no tokens. By depositing let’s say 10.000 sats to the mint, it will create 10k tokens, ready to be distributed among your customers.

5. Make an announcement among your shop customers. They could buy with their fiat currency, the amount of ecash desired, directly from you.

   How?

   They will have to install the Minibits or eNuts wallet apps into their devices and you will just be able to send them directly the ecash tokens from your own Minibits / eNuts / Cashu.me wallet where you start “minting” those new tokens.

   Now they can start transacting with those new ecash tokens, in your shop or between each others, or even send them to any other LN wallet (cash out).

6. If the user spend all his tokens bought from you, they have 2 options:

   1. buy more tokens with fiat currency from you (the banker)

   2. just deposit sats from any other LN wallet into his Cashu wallet, using your mint or any other mint. If they choose the same mint of yours, could transact again free fee in your shop.

7. You could incentivize your customers to buy from you the tokens offering them a good discount in your shop and a good rate price for fiat/BTC. Practically if you buy more BTC from the market, then you sell them to your customers as ecash, you will get back your sats when they come back and spend them in the shop. Exactly like regular gift cards.

   Then you use that fiat currency to buy more BTC and pay your suppliers. Everybody is happy.

With LNbits is also possible to create physical NFC cards, pre-loaded with sats, using the extension BoltCards. As a banker you can sell these are gift cards and your customers will come into your shop to use them.

Here is an example of how kids are using NFC cards pre-loaded with sats and pay for groceries in a shop in Brazil. See more examples here.

STEPS TO DO AS THE MINT USER

As the user you don’t have to do too much:

• install one of those Cashu wallets - Minibits | eNuts or both…

• save your backup information in a safe place

• receive or redeem the ecash tokens from your local minter (banker)

• start transacting with your tokens or redeem them into any of your self-custody wallets in case you accumulated too much.

In each app you can also see each mint details (if you use multiple mints), make backups, swaps between mints and more technical details about the tokens.

The swaps between mints also could be a very nice and easy form of coinjoin…

Here is also a very good video tutorial of how to use Minibits wallet by BTC Sessions:

CONCLUSION

As you can see, this could be another way to onboard more people into using Bitcoin, without even knowing all the technical details behind the UTXO, nodes, liquidity, channels, routing fees etc. For many all these aspects will be a hassle and they will just not want to start using Bitcoin.

But with simple solutions, as ecash, NFC cards, “uncle Jim” local banks could be a start for all these simple users.

Later, once they learn more about Bitcoin, they can move their sats into more self-custody wallets and hold safely large quantities of sats.

If you consider that I miss something to mention, please contact me for additional information to be added. On NOSTR or Telegram.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

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🇪🇸 Español | 🇭n Hindi | Updated Github version + more languages

This guide is a celebration of 5 years of existence of Zeus LN app, its first release v0.0.1 was on Feb 19 2019, 5 years of continuous improvements and dedication to self-custody FOSS app for bitcoiners. An amazing journey for a very powerful mobile app, that deserve its place on top of the Bitcoin builders. I could say that you are not a real bitcoiner if you do not have installed Zeus on your mobile device. Thanks to Evan Kaloudis !

I dedicate this guide to all those new Lightning Network (LN) users that want to start a new sovereign journey using a self-custody node wallet on their mobile devices.

Let’s consider that you already pass through all that plethora of custodial LN wallets, but you are not ready yet to start running a PUBLIC routing LN node, you just want to stack more sats over LN in a more self-custodial way and make your regular payments over LN.

Here comes Zeus, starting with version v0.8.0 announced on their blog, is offering now an embedded LND node into the app. Until now Zeus was a remote node management app + LNDhub accounts. But now… the node is in the phone!

If you want to see more details about the Zeus remote node management, please start with this very good video tutorial from BTC Sessions.

Quick recap of main features for Zeus Node:

• Private LND node - That means this node will NOT do public routing of others payments through your node. The node and the channels are unannounced (private, not visible on the public LN graph). To receive and make payments will be done thorough your connected LSP peers.

  REMEMBER: Zeus Embedded Node will NOT do public routing!

• Persistent LND service - user can activate this feature and keep the LND service active continuously as any regular LN node. The app doesn’t have to be open, the persistent service will keep all the communication online.

• Neutrino block filters - block sync is done using block filters and the Neutrino protocol (given no information about our users' on-chain funds). Reminder: for high-latency / slow internet connections this block sync based on neutrino, sometimes could fail. Trying to switch to a near neutrino server could help restore the sync. Without this sync your LND node could not start!

• Simple Taproot Channels - When closing these channels, users are incur less fees and are given more privacy as they appear to like any other Taproot spend when examining their on-chain footprint.

• Integrated LSP - Olympus is the new LSP node for Zeus. Users can reeceive sats over LN straight away, without having previously set up LN channels. Simply will have to create a LN invoice and pay from any other LN wallet, with Zeus 0-conf channel service. Read more about Zeus LSP here.

  The LSP also provides added privacy to our users by providing them with wrapped invoices that conceal their nodes' public keys from payers.

• Contacts Book - you can save manually contacts or import from NOSTR, for easy send payments to your regular destinations.

• Full support for LNURL, LN Address send and receive - now you can setup your own self-custodial LN Address with @zeuspay.com

  Reminder: You can also use Zeus for LN-auth on sites where you can login with a LN authentication. Is very handy.

• Point of Sale - Now merchant users can setup their own product items and sell directly from Zeus, with integrated PoS. For the moment contain basic needs but in the future will contain extended features.

• LND logs - user can read in real time the LND service logs and use them to debug possible issues (mainly for bad connections)

• Automated Backups - the LN node channels are automatically back up on the Olympus server. This automated backup is encrypted with your node wallet seed (without the seed is totally useless). User also can export manually a SCB (static channels backup) for a disaster recovery.

How to get onboard with Zeus LN Node (LND embedded)

In this guide I will talk only about the embedded LND node, and not about the other ways to use this magnificent app (remote node management and LNDhub accounts). For the other types of connections, please refer to Zeus Docs page, that is very well explained and no need for writing a dedicated guide.

STEP 1 - INITIAL SETUP

Due to the act that Zeus is a full LND node I will have some initial recommendations:

• Do not use an old device, that could affect the use of this powerful app. Especially in the period of sync the app could use intensively the CPU and RAM. The lack of these could even make impossible to use the Zeus app.

• Use at least Android 11 as mobile OS and updated as much is possible. For iOS the same, try to use a much higher version of OS.

• You will need at least 1GB disk space for the data storage. In time could grow more, but there is a functionality to compact the database to a level of MBs.

• There’s NO need to use Zeus with Tor or Orbot service. Please don’t complicate things more than is necessary. Tor in this case will not offer you more privacy but only make things worse for the initial sync. Also be careful with what VPNs you are using it and check the latency of the connection towards neutrino servers. Keep in mind, Neutrino block filter do not leak or trace your device identity, are just serving blocks. The LN traffic is also behind a LSP with private channels so very few information is out, there’s no reason to freak out about privacy.

• Have patience for the initial sync, could take several minutes. Try to be connected to a broadband internet connection with good latency. If you run your own Bitcoin node, you can activate the neutrino service and connect your Zeus to your own node, even using the internal LAN, so you will have a maximum speed.

Once you setup the type of connection “Embedded node” the app will start syncing for a while. Wait patiently to finish that part, then enter in the main Settings page.

Briefly, let’s dive into “the belly of The Beast” sections and understand some of the main features, before you start using Zeus:

A - Settings

This is a section with general settings for the entire app

1. Lightning Service Provider (LSP)

Here are presented two LSP services:

• Just in time channels - when you do not have any channel open or inbound liquidity available, if the service is activated it will open a channel on-the-fly for you. This option can be disabled if you do not want to open more channels of this type.

• Request channels in advance - you can buy inbound channels from the Olympus LSP directly in the app with multiple options and amounts (for inbound and outbound).

An LSP helps connect users to the Lightning network by opening up payment channels to their nodes. Read more about LSP here. ZEUS has a new LSP integrated into it called OLYMPUS by ZEUS, that is available to all users who use the new embedded node.

In this section, by default is the Olympus LSP (https://0conf.lnolymp.us), but you can also set another 0conf LSP that support this protocol.

Keep in mind:

• when you open a channel with Olympus LSP using the wrapped LN invoices you also obtain a 100k inbound liquidity ! This is really good option in case you need to receive straight away more sats.

• Example: you deposit 400k sats to open a LSP channel, then the LSP is opening a 500k sats capacity channel towards your Zeus node and push the 400k sats you deposit towards your side.

• “Inbound liquidity” = more “space” in your channel to receive.

In the future we hope we could have many other LSP that could be integrated into Zeus and use alternatively each one. Is just a matter of time until new LSPs will adopt an open standard for these kind of 0conf channels.

If you do not want to open new channels “on the fly”, you could disable this option.

In this same section, you have also the option to choose for “request Simple Taproot Channels” when the LSP will open a channel towards your Zeus node. These Simple Taproot Channels offer up better on-chain privacy and lower fees on channel closing. There are only two reasons you wouldn't want to use them:

• They are new, and there still may be bugs in LND when using them.

• Your counterparty doesn't support them. Even LND nodes have to explicitly opt into them, for now.

2 - Payment settings

This feature will offer you the way to set your own preferred fees for payments, over LN or onchain. Also provide the option to increase or decrease the timeout for your invoices.

If some of your LN payments fail, you could increase the fee to find a better route. Also if are doing onchain txs, you can setup a specific fee so your tx could not end up stuck in the mempool for long time, in case of high fees period.

3 - Invoices settings

In this section are some options to generate invoices:

• Set a standard memo to be displayed in the invoice you generate

• Expiration time in seconds, in case you want specific time, longer or shorter for your invoice to be paid

• Include route hints - provide information to find non-advertised, or private, channels. This allows routing of payments to nodes that are not publicly visible on the network. A routing hint provides a partial route between the receiver's private node and a public node. This routing hint is then included in the invoice generated by the receiver and provided to the payer. I suggest to have it enable by default, otherwise incoming payments could fail (no route found).

• AMP invoice - Atomic Multi-path Payments are a new type of Lightning payments implemented by LND that allow to receive sats without a specific invoice, using keysend. Is practically a static payment code. Read more here.

• Use Blinded Path for LN invoices - advanced privacy tecnique that allows you to hide your node’s public key, which is typically revealed in most LN invoices.

• Show custom preimage field - use this option only in very specific cases when you really want to use custom fields in the preimage. Read more here.

Another option in this section is how to set the type of onchain address you want to use: segwit nested, segwit, taproot.

Click on the top wheel button and a popup screen will appear to choose the desired type of address. Once you set that, the next time you hit the receive button for onchain, it will generate the address type selected. You can change it anytime.

4 - Channels settings

In this section you pre-set some opening channels features like:

• number of confirmations

• Announce channel (by default is off), that means it will be unannounced channels

• Simple Taproot Channels

• Show channel purchase button

5 - Privacy settings

Here you will find some basic settings to add more privacy using Zeus app:

• Block explorer to open tx details (mempool.space, blockstream.info or custom personal one)

• Read clipboard - on/off toggle if you want Zeus to read your device clipboard

• Lurker mode - on/off toggle if you want to hide specific sensitive info from your Zeus app. Is a good option when you make demos or screenshots.

• Mempool fee suggestion - activate this option if you want to use recommended fee levels from mempool.space

6 - Security

This section have only two options for securing the app at opening: set a password or a PIN.

Once you set a PIN to open the app, you also be able to set a “duress PIN”. This secret additional PIN will be used ONLY in case of duress situation, if you are threaten. If you put this PIN, the configuration will be all WIPE OUT. So you better keep updated your backups. Automated backups are ON by default, but is good to have your own backups too, out of the device.

7 - Currency

Enable or disable the option to display a fiat currency conversion in the Zeus app usage. Currently is supporting over 30 worldwide fiat currencies.

8 - Language

You can switch between multiple translation languages, reviewed by Zeus community with native speakers.

9 - Display

In this section you can personalize your Zeus display, selecting various color themes, default screen (keypad or balance), show your node alias, activate big keypad buttons, show more decimal places.

10 - Point of Sale

This is a special feature to enable / disable an integrated PoS system into Zeus. You could run a standalone PoS or linked to a Square PoS system. Currently is supporting basic functionalities as a PoS, but enough for a good start and could help those small merchants (bars/restaurants, groceries) to start accepting BTC in a native way.

Inside this settings, you will find various options to setup your PoS:

• Confirmation payment type: LN only, 0-conf, 1-conf

• Enable / disable tips for employee that operate the PoS

• Show / hide keypad

• Tax percentage to apply on the ticket

• Create products and categories of products

• A simple listing of all sales

Here is a live demo video how to use Zeus PoS:

B - Backup wallet

The embedded node in ZEUS is based on LND and uses the aezeed seed format. This is different than the typical BIP39 format you see in most Bitcoin wallets, although it may appear to be similar. Aezeed includes some extra data including the birth date of the wallet that will help re-scans during recovery happen more efficiently.

The aezeed key format should be compatible with the following mobile wallets: Blixt, BlueWallet and Breez. Note that the seed alone will be insufficient to recover all your balances if you have open or pending closing channels !

Learn more about the backup and restore process on Zeus Docs page.

POWER ADVICE: When you save your seed, please save also the node pubkey! Sometimes is good to have it at hand, together with your seed and SCB (Static Channels Backup) in case you need to verify the recovery.

SCB is necessary only if you have LN channels open. In case you have only onchain funds, is not necessary.

If you see that after a long time is still not showing the old history txs, go to Embedded node - Peers and disable the option to use the list of selected peers (by default is the btcd.lnolymp.us). That will trigger a restart and will connect to first available neutrino node with a better time response. Or use the bellow mentioned other well known neutrino peers.

If you want to see more recovery options for a LND node, please read my previous guide, where you can find the steps how to import an aezeed seed into Sparrow wallet or other methods.

C - Embedded Node

In this section we will find some basic tools to manage the integrated node:

1. Disaster Recovery - Automated and manual backups for the LN channels. Please read more how to use this feature on Zeus Docs page.

2. Express Graph Sync - Zeus app will download the LN gossip data graph from a dedicated server, for faster and better synchronization, offering best payment paths. You can choose also to clear previous graph data at startup.

3. Peers - section to manage the neutrino peers and 0-conf peers. If you have issues with initial sync, channels not coming online, is because your device have high latency with the configured neutrino peer. Try switching of the list of preferred peers or add your specific peer that you know it have better latency for sync.

   Well known neutrino servers are:

   • btcd1.lnolymp.us | btcd2.lnolymp.us (for US region)

   • btcd-mainnet.lightning.computer (for US region)

   • uswest.blixtwallet.com (for US region)

   • europe.blixtwallet.com (for EU region)

   • asia.blixtwallet.com (for Asia region)

   • node.eldamar.icu (for US region)

   • noad.sathoarder.com (for US region)

   • bb1.breez.technology | bb2.breez.technology

4. LND logs - very useful tool to debug your LN node issues and control in depth what is going on with a more technical level.

5. Advanced settings - more tools to control the use of your LND node:

   • Fee estimate - you can choose from which server your node will sync the actual mempool fees.

   • Pathfinding mode - bimodal or apriori, ways to find a better route for your LN payments and also resetting the previous routing information.

     Please read these very good guides about pathfinding:

     • Pathfinding - by Docs Lightning Engineering

     • LN Payment Pathfinding - by Voltage

   • Persistent LND - activate this mode if you want the LND service to run continuously in the background and keep your node online 24/7. This is very useful if you use Zeus as a PoS in a small shop or you are receiving many LN tips over the LN Address.

   • Rescan wallet - this option will trigger at restart a full scan of all onchain txs of your wallet. Activate it only in case you are missing some txs in your wallet. The rescan task will take time, several minutes so be patient and always check the logs to see more details about the progress.

   • Advanced rescan - if you want to start the rescan from a specific block height

   • Compact Database - this option is very useful if your Zeus app is occupying a lot of device space (see app details in your device settings). If you have a lot of activity using Zeus, I would recommend to do this compaction more often. Once you see that you have more than 1-1.5GB data for Zeus app, do the compaction. It will restart and take some time, so be patient.

   • Also the other option to delete the neutrino files (with a restart) will reduce a lot the data storage usage. Reducing the data usage also have a big impact in battery use, reducing the battery use, especially if you use Zeus in persistent mode.

D - Node Info

In this section, you will find more details about the status of your Zeus node as:

• Alias - short node ID

• Public Key - the full public key for your node required for other nodes to find that path towards your node. Remember that this pubkey is NOT visible on the regular LN Explorers (Mempool, Amboss, 1ML etc). This pubkey is reachable ONLY through your connected LN peers and channels.

• LN implementation version

• Zeus app version

• Synced to chain and Synced to graph status - very important ones, showing the correct status of your node. If these two are not displaying “true” it means that your node is still syncing or is having some issues syncing. So is suggested to look into your LND logs or wait a bit longer.

• Block height and hash - shows the last block and hash that your node saw and synced.

E - Network Info

This section displays more details about the general status for the Lightning network, extracted from your graph sync data: number of public channels available, number of nodes, number of zombie channels (offline or dead), graph diameter, average and max out degree for the graph.

This information data could be useful to debug or just used for statistics.

F - Lightning Address

In this section the user could setup his own self-custody LN Address @zeuspay.com.

ZEUS PAY leverages user-generated preimage hashes, hodl invoices, and the Zaplocker Nostr attestation scheme to allow users who may not be online 24/7 to receive payments to a static lightning address. Users just need to log in to their ZEUS wallets within 24 hours to claim the payments, otherwise they will be returned to the sender.

If you activate the “persistent mode” all the payments to your LN Address will be instantly received.

Learn about how Zaplocker payments work and more about ZeusPay Fees here.

G - Onchain Addresses

In this section you could consult your generated onchain addresses for a better coin control

H - Contacts

A new contact book was introduced in Zeus v 0.8.0 that you can use to quickly send payments to your friends and family, also with the ability to import your contacts from Nostr.

Simply enter in your Nostr npub or human readable NIP-05 address, and ZEUS will query Nostr for all your contacts. From there you can send a quick payment to a contact, or import all or select contacts to your local contact book.

Here is a short video how to configure and use your Zeus contacts:

I - Tools

Here we have various sub-sections with more tools:

1. Accounts - here you can import external accounts / wallets, cold wallets, hot wallets, to control or use as external funding source for your Zeus node channels. This feature is still experimental.

2. Speed up transaction - This feature could be helpful when you have a stuck tx into mempool and want to bump the fee. You will need to provide the tx output from tx details and select the desired new fee you want to use. Must be higher then previous one and require you to have more funds available in your onchain wallet.

You have to go to your pending tx and copy the txID outpoint. Then come to this section and paste it, then select the new fee you want to use to bump it. It will popup a new screen with recommended fees in that moment, or you can set a custom one. Remember MUST be higher than previous one.

Is always better to keep a UTXO with a maximum 100k sats in your Zeus onchain wallet, to be able to use it to bump fees when is necessary.

3. Sign or verify - With this feature you could sign a specific message with your wallet keys. Also can be used to verify a message to prove that is coming from a specific wallet keys.

4. Currency converter - a simple tool to calculate the rate conversion between BTC and other fiat currencies.

J - Merch and Support

Here you will find more info and links about Zeus, online shop, sponsors, social media.

K - Help

In this last section you will find links to Zeus documentation page, Github issues (if you want to post a bug or request directly to app developers), email support.

STEP 2 - START USING ZEUS NODE

Remember, Zeus is mainly to be used as a LN wallet, for easy and quick payments over LN. Sure, it also contain an onchain wallet, but that one should be used exclusively for opening / closing LN channels and not for regular payments of a coffee.

Please read my other guide about how to be your own bank using the 3 levels of stash.

In this moment the user have 2 ways to start using Zeus:

• Straight away over LN, using the 0-conf channel from Olympus LSP

• Deposit first in onchain wallet and then opening a normal LN channel with the peer you desire.

Method A - Using Olympus LSP

This is a very easy and straight forward way to onboard a new LN user with Zeus. It could be a totally new bitcoin user that have no sats whatsoever, onboarded by a friend, or a new merchant starting with his 1st LN payment.

By default, Zeus will use its own LSP, Olympus. But later you can switch also to other LSPs that support this 0-conf protocol to open channels.

By simply creating an invoice on your Zeus (put the amount and click “request” button), you will be able to receive those sats straight away.

The invoice you generate will be wrapped and you'll be presented with the fees associated with the service if they're paid. This wrapped invoice contain route hints towards your Zeus node, so the LSP could find your new node and open a channel with the new funds you are depositing.

In order to get a LN channel from the LSP with the funds you want to receive 1st time, this invoice must be paid from another LN wallet and wait few moments until the LSP is opening the channel towards your Zeus node, deduct the fee and push the the remaining amount of the payment on your side of the channel.

All you have to do is pay the invoice generated for you in ZEUS with another lightning wallet, and you channel will open instantly. Please consult the Zeus LSP fees.

Another benefit of paying for a channel is zero fee routing. That means when routing payments, the first hop through OLYMPUS by ZEUS incurs no routing fees. Note, that hops beyond OLYMPUS by ZEUS will still charge you.

Once the channel is ready, click on the right button at the bottom of the screen, that displays the Zeus channels.

And you will see a channel like this, showing your side of the channel balance:

For more you will spend from this channel, more inbound liquidity you will have. For more sats you will receive into this channel, less inbound liquidity space you will have.

Here is a nice simple visual demonstration (by Rene Pickhardt) about how LN channels works:

In this moment, considering the demo screen for channels, click on the channel name and you will see more details about it.

You have a single channel with Olympus, of a total capacity of 490 000 sats, with a balance of 378k sats on your side and 88k sats on Olympus side. That means you could receive a maximum 88k sats more in the same channel.

If you need to receive more than 88k sats (the available inbound liquidity in this case), let’s say another 500k sats, by simply creating a new LN invoice with that amount, will trigger a new channel request to the Olympus LSP. So you will get a 2nd channel.

That’s why, in order to avoid paying more fees for opening multiple channels, it is recommended to open first time a bigger channel, let’s say 1-2M sats. Once is open, you could swap out to onchain part of those sats, let’s say 50%, using any external swap service described in this guide.

Once you swap out from that channel let’s say 50% and get back the sats into your own Zeus onchain wallet, you are ready to move to the next method of opening a new channel - from onchain balance.

Method B - Using your onchain balance

With this method you can open channels towards any other LN node, including the same Olympus LSP. But if you already have a channel with Olympus is recommended to have also with another node, for more reliability and also could use MPP (multi-part payment).

Above is an example of paying a LN invoice using MPP. As you can see at the bottom of the screen you have “settings” and is opening a drop down page with more details for the payment you are about to make. In that screen, if you have at least 2 channels open, the MPP feature will be ON by default. Also you can activate AMP (atomic multi-path) and set specific parts you want. This is a powerful feature!

For a private node as Zeus, I would recommend to have 2-3 good channels (max. 4-5), with good LSPs and good liquidity to cover all your needs to pay or receive sats over LN. See more LN node liquidity advice in this guide. Also here another general guide about LN liquidity from Bitcoin Design team.

Choosing the right peers, I know, is not an easy task, even for experienced users. So I will give you some options to start, these are peer nodes that I tested myself using Zeus (I tried to connect only to LND nodes to avoid incompatibility issues):

• Blixt Node - 1base / dynamic ppm | min 50k channel, good LND node with a lot of connections to many rings and big routes, LSP for Blixt Wallet users

• LNBig - dynamic fees and quite high | no min/max channel size | various LND nodes across the globe | inbound liquidity services

• LN2Me - base 1 / dynamic ppm | min 1M ch size | old LND node | collaborative

• NERV - reasonable fees | good LND node also providing liquidity for Blixt users

• RecklessApotheosis - base 1 / dynamic ppm | autofees with LNDg | min 5M sats public chan, min 500k sats private chan | LND hybrid node | Contact

Here is also a list of vouched node peers for Zeus. If you know good ones, you are welcome to add them to that list.

You can open a channel in Zeus by going to the Channels view by clicking the channel icon in the bottom right corner of the main view, and then hitting the + icon in the top right corner.

If you want to open a channel with a specific node, click on (A) top corner to scan the node QR nodeID (on Mempool, Amboss, 1ML you can obtain that QR) and all the peer details will be populated.

REMINDER

• Zeus embedded node do not use Tor service ! So please do not try to open channels with nodes that are under Tor! You are doing more damage to yourself than adding more privacy. Tor for LN it doesn’t offer more privacy but adding more trouble.

• Choose wisely your peers, better be good LSPs, good routing nodes, not random pleb nodes that could close your channels and could not offer good liquidity. Here I wrote a dedicated guide about liquidity and example of nodes.

If you directly click on the button “Open Channel to Olympus” you will populate the required fields to open a channel to OLYMPUS by ZEUS.

Unlike paid LSP channels, your channel will require on-chain confirmation, using your onchain funds (you can select from your UTXOs in the open channel view); it will not open instantly. Please consult first the actual mempool fees and adjust them accordingly, depending on how fast you want to open that channel.

Before hitting the button to open the channel, slide down the advanced options:

You will also need to make sure that the channel is un-announced (private). By default the option is off for announced channels. This option is not recommended to be activated for Zeus embedded node, is useful only when you use Zeus with your remote node, as a public routing node.

Unlike paid LSP channels, you will not benefit from zero fee routing by opening channels with this method.

And done, just click on the button “Open Channel”, wait for the tx to be confirmed by the miners. Once the channel is open you can transact as you wish with the sats from your channels.

Keep in mind that these channels will have all the balance on YOUR side, so you will not have inbound liquidity. As I said before, swap out or spend some sats buying stuff over LN to “make more space” to receive.

Think of your LN channels as a glass of water. You pour some water (sats) into an empty glass (your channel) until you fill it up. You cannot pour more water until you drink some (spending / swap out). When the glass is almost empty, pour more water (sats) into it by using a swap in. Read more about external swap services here.

There are also other LSP services as selling you inbound channels: LNBig or Bitrefill. I think are more services like these but can’t remember them right now.

So if you need practically an empty LN channel (the balance is 100% on the peer side from the start), for receiving more payments than you can handle on your existing filled up channels, this could be a very good option. You will pay a specific fee for opening these channels and you get plenty of inbound space.

TIPS AND TRICKS

a. Inbound reserve limits

Right now, due to some LN code limitations it is not possible to receive exactly how much is displayed in “Inbound”. Always keep in mind that you should make your invoices with a slight less amount, respectively the “Channel Local Reserve” amount.

As you can see in the above image, the “inbound” it displays that I can still receive 5101 sats, but in fact in this moment is impossible to receive more. And you can observe that is the same amount as the “Local reserve”.

So keep in mind, when you make invoices to receive, also take a look into your channels liquidity and deduct the local reserve from that amount, if you want to push to the limits the receivable amount.

Quick advice for new users starting with Zeus node:

1. Seize correctly your new channels.

For example, if you know that you will receive in a week let's say 1M sats, open a 2M sats channel and swap out into onchain wallet or into another (temporary) custodial LN account 50-60% of your outbound liquidity. Always be prepared with more liquidity. Once you need more liquidity back in your Zeus channels, you can move it back from the custodial accounts.

If you know that you will send let's say 500k sats/week, then open a 1M sats channel. In this way you will still have a reserve until you fill it up again.

2. If you are a merchant and you will always receive more than you spend regularly, buy a dedicated inbound channel. Is the cheapest way. You pay a minimal fee and you get an "empty" channel.

3. Do not open small meaningless channels of 50-100-300-500k sats. You will fill them in matter of days, even if you use them only for zaps. Open bigger ones and different ones, NOT just one channel.

Once you open a bigger channel, you can always use external submarine swaps to move sats into your onchain wallets (including back to Zeus onchain). Keeping a balance between in and out liquidity is good and also you can “re-use” those sats to open more channels if you like.

b. Wrapped invoice

If you want to add more privacy when you receive, you could use the “wrapped invoice” method. Reminder: in order to be able to do this, you need a channel with Olympus LSP. Wrapped invoices will “hide” the final destination (your Zeus node) and displaying your LSP node as destination to the payer.

In order to obtain a wrapped invoice, go to the main keypad screen, put the amount and hit request. Will display a normal QR code for your invoice. Now, click on the top right “X” button and you will be redirected to more options for the invoice.

Now you will have to activate that option on top “Enable LSP” and hit the “Create invoice” button. That option will create the wrapped invoice and remember, will charge a small fee.

c. Pay with Keysend

Keysend is a very underrated LN feature and users should use it more often.

Keysend allows users in the Lightning network to send payments to others , directly to their public key, as long as their node has public channels and has keysend enabled. Keysend does not require the payee to issue an invoice.

So how you can do that with Zeus?

Simply scan or copy the destination nodeID (or use Zeus contacts to save your regular destination nodes as contacts) and then from main Zeus screen, click on “Send” button. In that screen then paste the nodeID or select from your contacts.

Put the amount of sats, a message if is necessary (yes, you can use it also as a secret chat over LN) and click on “Send” button. Done!

If you have a direct channel with the destination peer, will be NO fees involved.

If you do not have a direct channel with the destination peer, then the keysend payment will pay the fees as a normal LN invoice payment, routed on a regulat path as any other payment. Only that, remember, it will not remain any trace as a LN invoice.

A more advanced guide of using Zeus, I wrote it here.

And… that’s it! From now on you just use Zeus Node as a regular BTC/LN wallet on your mobile. The UI is pretty straight forward and easy to use, intuitive for any type of user, I don’t think I have to enter in more details about how to make and receive payments.

In conclusion, here is a comparison privacy chart :

If you consider that some other functionalities need more explanation, please contact me on NOSTR or Telegram.

Zeus Resources Links:

Website | Docs | Github | Releases | Telegram | NOSTR | Twix | Blog

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

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🇪🇸 Español | 🇭🇷 Hrvatski| 🇭n Hindi 

Updated version on my Github page

This is the story of a baby user, starting his journey into Bitcoinlandia, trying to stack sats, one by one, from many different sources.

The use of each wallet app from above image is not mandatory; is just a representation of the level of complexity of each app and their functionalities.

In this guide I will explain the steps and which apps a total noob should use, in order to have a smooth journey into climbing the Bitcoin knowledge ladder.

Usually, a new Bitcoin user should start by learning the basics of Bitcoin, how onchain transactions work, how Bitcoin blocks are mined / confirmed and the most important: SELF CUSTODY IN YOUR OWN BTC WALLETS. Let’s consider you already learned these basics but right now is hard for you, as a new user with limited funds, to stack straight in onchain wallets.

Let’s consider this use case for a new user that is not a Michael Saylor to buy in chunks of thousands of BTC, but a regular user trying to stack sats, slowly, one by one, from many different sources, and cannot jump straight into onchain wallets, due to high fees and want to stack larger UTXOs (coins) in his HODL onchain wallets.

As I described in the previous guide “Be Your Own Bank - Think Like A Bank” is better to stack your BTC stash on 3 levels: HODL, CACHE, SPEND (LN). To reach that HODL level a new user must pass through spend (LN), then cache (swaps) and then to HODL (onchain vaults).

Another must read guide and have it bookmarked is “Lightning Wallets Comparison”, where as a new user you could find more technical description and functionalities of each LN wallet app described in this article.

Bitcoin Layer 2 (Lightning Network - LN): is an accounting system which lets you transact with a L1 (onchain) asset independent of the native L1 accounting system.

STEP 1 - STACKING SATS

Let’s consider that you just want to start by receiving some tips, few sats, over Lightning Network (LN), donations, small gigs paid in sats, zaps from NOSTR, doing various tasks rewarded with sats. All these small amounts are almost impossible or very costly in fees if you try to do it over onchain transactions (txs).

Even buying sats with the DCA method, every week, small amounts, from exchanges that support LN withdrawal, using the LN level as a base is much better than stacking straight into onchain wallets.

Another important aspect is that stacking on LN could offer a good level of privacy, because you can consolidate larger amounts and then send them through a swap service to your onchain vaults. Even non-KYC but custodial LN accounts could be used very well as decoy temporary stacking level until you accumulate a certain amount of sats to be moved to your own onchain wallets, in full self custody.

If you are small merchant, I recommend reading this other guide about how to operate receiving through LN.

For this 1st level, I would suggest the following process:

• receive through LN invoices or LNURL or Lighting Address small amounts of sats

• stack up to 100k sats or whatever other higher amount you are comfortable with and once you reach that limit, send the sats over LN to a submarine swap service.

• From that submarine swap service, use your own onchain wallets as destination. Each swap of 100-200-300-500k sats with his own new BTC address, creating multiple UTXOs with a certain amount. Do not use exactly rounded amounts, better to have some randomness. I suggest to use a cache level onchain wallet(s) as destination for these swaps. Not directly to your onchain “vaults”, cold wallets (see step 2).

• Some custodial LN accounts apps have integrated swaps (LN←→ onchain) so depending on their fees structure you can use them directly.

• Do NOT keep too much sats in these custodial accounts! Some of them are even limiting your total stash and withdrawal amount, but is better to move out once you are close to that limit. These custodial accounts are just temporary and could lose access to them anytime.

• These custodial accounts are also good if you use to get sats from Robosats or any other service using “hold invoices”. Hold invoices could trigger force closures of your LN channels if they get in the path some shity LN node that cannot handle very well a pending HTLC.

Wallet apps (custodial) that can be used for this 1st level, just to receive few sats without hassle:

I recommend to use as many as you can/like and spread your income through multiple sources, each one could be used better or not for specific situations.

• Alby - Webpage | Github | Blog | Telegram (include swaps and can be used as web browser extension, web wallet, PWA or imported into Zeus or Bluewallet as a LNDHUB account). Here is also a guide about Alby Hub - self-custodial.

• CoinOS - Webpage | Github (web wallet, POS, integrated swaps)

• Walletano - Webpage | Github | Telegram (web wallet, PWA, multiple accounts)

• SatsMobi - Telegram (Telegram LN bot, can be used imported as LNDHUB acc into Zeus or Bluewallet)

• Blink - Webpage | Github (light KYC, integrated swaps, web PoS/ donation page). Here is a nice guide how to use Blink, by Natalia.

• LifPay - Webpage (integrated swaps, web PoS / donation page)

• Wallet of Satoshi - Webpage (require Google Services, PoS, integrated swaps)

• CashApp - Webpage (require Google Services, light KYC, integrated swaps)

• Strike - Webpage (require Google Services, full KYC, integrated swaps)

• Zebedee - Webpage (require Google Services, light KYC)

Lightning Services for this 1st level of stacking:

• Exchanges and services from where you could buy sats and withdraw over LN

• Submarine Swap Services and a comparison table of fees here.

• Webpage listing of various sources for stacking sats

STEP 2 - CACHING YOUR 1ST LEVEL OF STACK

At this level you are stacking big chunks of sats in your own custody onchain wallets.

Use multiple onchain wallets, with multiple UTXOs, multiple BTC addresses, receiving from swaps, as intermediary step, until you pile up larger amounts for your long term vaults, opening LN channels and simply caching your stash organizing your UTXOs. This is the level where you must learn how to be your bank and think like a bank.

Recommended actions for this 2nd level:

• Use desktop wallet apps, for better management of the BTC addresses and UTXOs. Bitcoin ONLY! And use a Linux OS, dedicated for this task.

• You can use mobile apps for watch-only wallets, in case you are on-the-go and you need quick access to deposit onchain. Read here a guide about watch-only.

• Use an offline password manager to keep safe and a good track of all your wallets backups. KeePass and Bitwarden are very good for this and are multi-platform.

• Organize very well all your UTXOs, label them, consolidate and coinjoin them if you want more privacy. Sparrow, Electrum and Wasabi are very good desktop apps for this task.

  • small UTXOs of 100-500k or even 1M sats for opening future LN channels.

  • Medium UTXOs of 1-2-3M sats for quick use in case is necessary and do not want to split a bigger UTXO in the future.

  • Large UTXOs of 3-10M sats to be stacked into onchain vaults for medium holding time.

  • Big UTXOs of 10-50M sats to be stacked into onchain vaults for long term holding, UTXOs that you are not planning to move in long time.

  • Huge UTXO of 1BTC, in extreme cases as inheritance plans.

• Prepare and calculate very well your moves, depending on the mempool fees in that period. PATIENCE IS KEY IN BITCOIN! Read and learn more about how mempool fees works.

• From this level, you split your stash into 3 parts:

  • HODL - send to your onchain vaults, cold wallets, long time holding wallets.

  • LN channels - open LN channels if you start using your own LN nodes (public or private). Read here a liquidity guide and a guide about private LN nodes.

  • Cache - keep some UTXO into this 2nd level for future need, so you don’t need to take back from your long term vaults.

Wallet apps that can be used for this intermediary 2nd level:

I recommend to use as many as you can/like and spread your income through multiple sources, each one could be used better or not for specific situations.

• Electrum - Webpage | Github | Docs (desktop and mobile wallet with integrated swaps and LN channels management, very good for UTXO management)

• Sparrow - Webpage | Github | Docs (desktop onchain wallet with integrated coinjoin, very good for UTXO management)

• Wasabi - Webpage | Github | Docs (desktop onchain wallet with integrated coinjoin, UTXO management)

• Nunchuck - Multi-platform onchain only wallet, privacy and security focused.

• Bluewallet - Webpage | Github | Telegram (can be used as mobile watch-only and also with LNDHUB accounts)

• Green - Webpage | Github | Docs (can be used as watch-only, hardware wallets interface and also as LN wallet). Read here a getting started guide.

• Phoenix - Webpage | Github (LN wallet with integrated swaps to onchain)

• Breez - Webpage | Github | Telegram (LN wallet with integrated swaps)

• BitKit - Webpage | GitHub | Telegram - BETA phase only for testing!

• LNbits - Webpage | Github | Docs (powerful suite of LN apps and wallets, can be used in a custodial mode from an “uncle Jim” node or you run your own instance).

• Bitcoin Core - Desktop onchain only wallet for the Bitcoin node.

STEP 3 - YOUR JOURNEY IS GETTING EXCITED

At this level, you already stacked a good amount of sats in multiple UTXOs. You already feel the rhythm of the famous AC/DC song “It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna Rock’N’Roll”.

Also is supposed that you already read and learned more about how LN works, how to run a node, how to manage channels and liquidity. This is a serious level, that suppose you have enough knowledge and you are using with responsibility your own funds. Being your own bank (at serious level) comes with great responsibility. You will realize the level of responsibility when you have enough knowledge about what you are going to do. This is the level of financial sovereignty, where you are the only one that decide for your own funds, how to be used and where.

At this level you can choose the path you want to take using Bitcoin:

• PUBLIC LN nodes - a desktop node that can do LN routing, with public channels, large liquidity and maintenance, high availability and responsibility for the network. Read here about what software can be used as public nodes.

• PRIVATE LN nodes - mostly mobile nodes that CANNOT do LN routing, just your own payments, through LSP, with private channels. No need for high availability online, only in the moment of the payment.

• Or run both types if you want to experiment and learn more. But be aware of the requirements and responsibilities for each case.

Recommended actions for this 3rd level:

• If you run a PUBLIC LN routing node, calculate very well the funds you are going to use as public liquidity. This is a very serious task and require large amount of funds to be put into public LN channels. As I explained in this detailed guide about LN liquidity. Also here about how to manage the fees for routing.

• The public LN nodes cold be also used for swaps, but in some cases could reveal your identity (if you link a real one with your node). You can use decoy nodes too, as I described in this guide. More guides about LN privacy: here and here.

• If you just want to use Bitcoin for your regular shopping, over LN, running PRIVATE LN nodes is more than enough. Here is a detailed guide. Just open a bunch of small/medium LN channels with these mobile LN nodes and you will have enough to spend. Once these channels are almost depleted, refill them using any swap service, depositing from your onchain cache wallets. Spend and refill.

• With private LN nodes, you do not have to worry too much about liquidity in your channels, peers etc. Connecting to few good LSPs will provide you good routes and fees and also additional level of privacy (see wrapped invoices). Your only worry should be to refill the channels when are about to be empty.

• Make regular LN channels backups! Each time you open or close a LN channel, MAKE A BACKUP ! Save those backup files into your password manager or online (encrypted). Keep in mind, these channel backups (SCB) are usable ONLY with the wallet seed. Just the wallet seed or SCB file are NOT enough to recover your lost wallet node funds. The seed can be used for recovery ONLY if you do not have channels open anymore.

Wallet apps that can be used for this 3rd level:

I recommend to use as many as you can/like and spread your income through multiple sources, each one could be used better or not for specific situations.

• Blixt Wallet - Webpage | Github | Docs | Telegram (Full LND node)

• Zeus - Webpage | Github | Docs | Telegram (can be used in multiple modes: Full LND node, LNDHUB accounts, remote node management)

• BitKit - Webpage | GitHub | Telegram (BETA phase, LDK node)

• BitBanana (forked Zap) - Github (remote LND node management)

• Hexa (BitcoinTribe) - Webpage | Github | Telegram (remote LND node management)

• Fully Noded - Webpage | Github (remote LN node management)

• Clams - Webpage | Github | App | Docs (remote CLN node management)

• LNbits - Webpage | Github | Docs (powerful suite of LN apps and wallets, can be used in a custodial mode from an “uncle Jim” node or you run your own instance)

• BTCPay Server - Webpage | Github | Docs (powerful suite of merchants/shops)

• RTL Ride The Lightning - Webpage | Github (remote LN node management)

• Thunderhub - Webpage | Github | Telegram (remote LN node management)

Each of these apps have specific features and functionalities. Choose wisely the apps for your own use case, but in the same time I would recommend to use at least 2-3 of them, spreading your liquidity in multiple sources.

Additional guides I wrote about some of these apps:

• Private Lightning Nodes

• Getting started with Blixt Wallet

• Getting Started with Zeus LN Node

• Getting started with Green Wallet Lightning

• Blixt Dunder LSP and Lightning Box Provider

• Bluewallet funding sources

• Getting started with LNbits

• LNbits for small merchants

• The bank of LNbits

• Getting started with Lightning Address

• Private banks over the Lightning Network

• Getting started with Umbrel node

• LND node SHTF scenario - ways to recover your dead node

• Migrate your old Electrum to Sparrow

• Migrate old legacy addresses to Taproot addresses

• Lightning Node Maintenenace

• What mobile device a bitcoiner should use

CONCLUSION

As you can see, as a new Bitcoin user, the journey is not that easy, there are some steps to follow, learning all the way up about how to use specific apps with specific features, in specific moments.

There’s no such thing as “the best Bitcoin wallet” that could have all available features and provide the best experience for all use cases. Learn how to use multiple apps and manage your funds like a pro, like a real bank.

The most important thing is to understand how to split your stash in those 3 levels: HODL, CACE, SPEND. Like that you will have a smooth experience using Bitcoin and a minimal level of fees paid in future spending, keeping also a good level of privacy and security.

This article is just a simple resume from many other guides I wrote in the past, trying to put in a simple perspective the steps that should follow a new Bitcoin user. I suggest to read all my previous guides, starting with the ones listed as “additional” in this article.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇭n Hindi 

Many of my readers were asking me to write this guide, even that most of the documentation can be found on Blockstream website. So I took some excerpts from their docs added some of my observations and recommendations and put them together into this short guide to have it at hand for new users.

The long awaited Lightning wallet on Blockstream Green have arrived. At the time writing this guide, IS STILL IN BETA PHASE, but if you want to test its functionalities, is ready to be used on Bitcoin mainnet.

At the end of this guide you will find all the links to download it so I am sure you read first the IMPORTANT steps you should do.

INTRODUCTION

The Green wallet is a multi account application, where you could start using multiple Bitcoin accounts (singlesig, multisig, watch-only, HW-connect) and now also was introduced the Lightning account.

What's the difference between wallets and accounts?

Wallets

A Green wallet lets you store and spend you funds securely and conveniently. I's self-custodial, so it means that it stores or manages the keys to access your bitcoin, so you are in control.

To start sending and receiving funds on Blockstream Green, you must create at least one wallet, but you can have create or import multiple ones.

For each wallet you create, need to back up your primary key. The backup consists of a 12 or 24-word recovery phrase.

Each wallet can be accessed via PIN or biometrics and even be exported across multiple devices.

Accounts

An account is a subsection of wallets that allows you to separate funds based on your needs, for more security, or instant payments. You can manage multiple additional accounts in each wallet.

Accounts are tied to the primary key in which they are created. The recovery phrase backup of your primary key, unlocks access to all accounts inside that wallet. If you lose access to your wallet, you lose access to all accounts inside the wallet.

What Is the Purpose of Using Multiple Accounts?

Some of the benefits of using multiple accounts include:

Instant transactions

Top up your instant account to send instant cheap transactions to everyone on the Lightning Network, with our unique self-custody solution for Bitcoin Lightning payments.

Increased Security

You can create a 2FA protected account, where spending funds from requires authenticating with a separate 2FA of your choice among Authenticator app, email, sms, or call.

Easier Accounting

Maintaining multiple accounts can be useful if you want to keep track of different income streams or budgets without having to write down and store a new recovery phrase for each balance.

Stronger Privacy

Your account balance shows the total value of all UTXOs in your account. When you make a transaction, your Blockstream Green app may combine transaction outputs in order to send the required amount of funds. Combining UTXOs can compromise your privacy as it links multiple addresses to the same sender.

By creating separate accounts within the same wallet, you can control which UTXOs are combined and which aren’t. Blockstream Green will never combine UTXOs from two different accounts, even if they are part of the same wallet.

In Blockstream Green, your funds are stored inside accounts, which are stored inside wallets. Accounts enable you to conveniently separate your funds in one wallet. For example, you might use one account for daily spending and another for stacking securely with 2FA protection.

LET’S GET STARTED

To play around and test it, you would need to activate the “experimental” features and open a “Lightning Account”, is actually a CLN node using Greenlight, where the keys stays on your device.

First step is to create a simple Bitcoin wallet, single sig, from which will be derived the keys for your Lightning Account (node).

You do not have to deposit any BTC into this onchain wallet and then later open a LN channel (as you are used to do with regular LN nodes). The Lightning node could receive straight away sats directly from a LN invoice. Greenlight (Blockstream backend node hosting) is providing all the liquidity and channels management as the main LSP.

For a regular new user, this is a very simple way to start with Lightning without all the hassle of running a full LN node and managing the liquidity, channels etc.

After you create a main Bitcoin wallet, then go to App Settings (top left drawer on main screen) and activate “Experimental features”.

Once you’ve done that, go back to Accounts screen and click on “Create new account“ button from top right. Then on the bottom, click on “Advanced features”. You will see that now you can create a “Lightning Account”.

Some aspects to remember:

• This LN account will have maximum 4M sats capacity.

• Green is using splicing, to expand channel capacity (same as Phoenix).

• You will be asked to encrypt the node keys on your device with YOUR device PIN. Be aware, some users the tried using a new PIN, but is actually your device security PIN. It is NOT the Green app PIN, that you normally set for opening.

• Save the LN nose seed for backup !

• Save the nodeID for backup and later use !

• The node liquidity is offered ONLY through Blockstream Greenlight LSP (similar with Phoenix), but the keys stays on your device.

• Green is supporting fully LNURL, except LUD-18 and 02. And it works pretty well.

How Liquidity works in Green LN wallet?

Let’s explain a bit, for new users, how the liquidity works in Green so they have it clear in their mind from the beginning.

So, Green is dedicating a maximum 4M sats capacity for this LN account. That means you can deposit a max 4M sats initially or during the whole use of Green, through smaller amounts until you reach that max limit.

When you are inside the LN account, if you click on the top right corner menu and open the “Node Info” option, you will see your LN node ID and also displaying the liquidity available.

You better save that nodeID info together with your LN seed words that are separate from your main Bitcoin wallet !

So let’s say you deposited 50k sats initially.

As you can see, on the balance it says 47199 sats (represent the 50k - 2500 sats fee - some tests I did) and bellow it says 28174 sats “receive capacity”. That means I can still receive 28174 sats WITHOUT paying an additional 2500 sats fee to expand the capacity of that channel, through splicing.

This is a nice way that Green is offering to users to have like 40-50% more inbound capacity on top of what they already deposited.

Now come the interesting part. Let’s say you deposit more than that extra capacity of 28174 sats, you deposit 900k sats. In that moment the channel is expanded using splicing LN feature, you pay an extra fee of 2500 sats and now you have a bigger channel. But is still full and you will still get a smaller inbound liquidity on top.

Remember you cannot go further than 4M sats. I think this is a limitation for beta phase and not be too much reckless. But 4M sats for mobile LN wallet is more than enough.

What happen if you swap out those 900k sats now? Let’s say you want to move them to an onchain wallet. Fine, use any swap service to move out those sats, but not all, just leave in the channel at least 1%.

In that moment you will remain with an almost empty channel, ready to receive more sats over LN, without paying those extra fees of 2500 sats for each deposit. That’s why is recommended to start with a bigger initial deposit, so you will pay only once that fee, instead of each time you deposit.

For the moment I could find a way to swap out directly into main Bitcoin wallet, you have to use an external service.

But the swap in function works just fine.

Click on LN account main screen the “Receive” button and in that screen, before you put the amount, you will see at the bottom “Show onchain Address”. Will generate a new BTC address to deposit.

In the next screen you will get the BTC address and also a warning saying that min and max limit for that deposit. Also a fee for the splicing will be applied.

As you can see is limiting the max deposit to 900k sats. I don’t know why exactly this limit, but I supposed is specific to beta phase and also maybe for a better channels management and not being abused. But is more than enough for the moment.

So this onchain deposit practically will expand your channel capacity with the amount of sats you deposited + what you already had inside + a little bit more inbound capacity.

OBSERVATIONS

Another very interesting aspect to be mentioned is that this LN wallet is offering more privacy when you RECEIVE sats over LN. Why? Because is using wrapped invoices.

I did a test, creating an invoice in Green and then decode it into LN decoder to see possible tracing of the LN invoice. You can see that end up as “destination” node a BreezC node, that I supposed is the LSP for Greenlight, using the new C= specs.

So in this way, your Green nodeID is not revealed in a payment, offering more privacy.

I tested also the disaster recovery procedure, wiping out the whole app and restore from seed, the main bitcoin wallet account and the LN account. All worked as designed, recovering straight away the LN channel funds, without the necessity of closing the channel.

CONCLUSION

I think this is a nice, simple and elegant way for new users to start using Lightning without any complications, with self-custody of their keys.

This wallet is a good alternative to all those custodial accounts, some of them even KYC and closed source. It still have some limitations, but for a not so technical user is a very good option.

RESOURCES LINKS:

Green is free, open source software, that can be installed from Google Play Store, Apple Store, F-Droid and also straight from Github repository (you can use Obtainium for updates)

• Blockstream Green Website | Github | Documentation

• In depth explanation of how Green LN works (YT video)

• Download links: Google Play Store | Apple Store | F-Droid | Github repo

• Telegram Support

• What are funding fees when receiving on my Instant lightning account?

• How does the shortcut to my lightning account work?

• Lightning Wallets Comparison Guide

DISCLAIMER

I am not paid by Blockstream or any other team/company. I just support for free their open-source solutions with guides. We MUST help each others if we want to go forward with Bitcoin adoption. They write code, I write guides.

I am writing guides and documentations, translations for many other Bitcoin solutions, for free. My life is dedicated to Bitcoin as a whole, as a way forward for a better world.

Don’t ask what Bitcoin did for you, ask what YOU did for Bitcoin!

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

🇪🇸 Español

Updated version on my Github page

I really hope that all those Plebnet node runners are reading this mini guide and give more use to their LN nodes. This liquidity is what is needed right now for regular mobile users.

I would like to explain some simple steps about how you can offer LN liquidity services for mobile node users. This could be also that "uncle Jim" scenario, where you are offering LN services for your family and friends, that do not / can't run their own node and just want a way to use LN in a safe and private way, self-custodial.

REMINDER:

• This guide is not for noobs! Please, if you do not have a good base knowledge about running public routing nodes, this is NOT for you.

• LSP do not hold user funds! It just provide liquidity. This is NOT custody of users funds, is just a way to provide, fast opening channels and good routes for users payments. Read more here what is a LSP (Liquidity Service Provider).

• LSPs are very important for mobile private nodes users, to be able to open good channels that offer good liquidity. Not all LN node in the network are willing to offer this kind of services, because a private node is not always online and is not doing any routing, so those funds are exclusively for their own payments, so the LSP cannot use them for routing. So in some way they depend on users traffic. If the user is not using these funds to do payments, the LSP is not earning any fees. Or even worse, if is opening an inbound channel for the user, the LSP is literally putting money from his pocket into a channel that never move.

• Is important that these channels services are for users that have most of the time traffic in and out.

Some requirements are to mention first:

A. You have a good LN public node

Running a good routing node is a serious task, you must have a good node with history, with good channels, good liquidity, good maintenance. It is not for any shity new node in the network.

You will have a great responsibility to route well all the payments, not only for your private peers but also for the public ones.

I wrote several guides about this aspect, please take your time and read them:

• Recommendations for LN users

• Managing Lightning Node Liquidity

• Lightning Node Maintenance

• Lightning Routing Fees Experiment

B. You run a LND node.

This scenario, unfortunately is only for LND node. No CLN, Eclair, LDK for the moment. We encourage anybody that is good with writing code to take it and fork it for other LN implementations. The software is FOSS.

I hope some day, we will have a standard code for all type of LSP and LN implementations, but until then we have to use what we have, to try to move forward.

C. Your node have good liquidity

You must know very well how to maintain your liquidity in such way that could offer smooth and fast payments.

The health of the network depend enormously of good public nodes. If you node is not well maintained, doesn’t have very good liquidity, is only Tor, then you are doing more damage to the whole network then doing good.

D. Routing fees you apply

Fees are up to you, but I suggest to not let the greed controls you. We are not in the phase when we will fuck each others. First we need to fuck the banks and governments, pushing forward the Bitcoin adoption and more use of it.

So proceed with caution, have a long time preference, having a smooth income flow with happy clients of your liquidity.

E. Technical skills

You must be very familiar with Linux and CLI, installing software. NO NEED for noobs that knows only how to use Umbrel and Windows.

Debugging and maintaining a serious system is not for apprentices. Shit can happen all the time and you must act fast and with knowledge. Many people will depend on your skills to fix problems in time.

F. Service longevity

Willing to maintain the service for your users as long as you could. Be fair and help them as much as you can. We’ve seen many quitters, so analyze your options, your future gains, your strategy for long term and start this only if you know you could keep the promise.

SOLUTION PROPOSAL

There are two parts of the proposal:

• Dunder LSP - liquidity services for mobile nodes

• Lightning Box - LN Address services for private domains, family and friends

A - Dunder LSP

This solution is based on Dunder LSP specs, that are fully open source, made by Hampus , developer of Blixt Wallet. All contributions to improve the code are welcome!

This Dunder LSP is offering right now easy onboarding for new Blixt wallet users, a full LND node on your mobile (I wrote a full step-by-step guide here).

The idea is that you, as a public routing node runner, will provide 2 things:

• private channels to mobile node users, even with 0-conf channels

• access to public liquidity through those private channels, better payment routes

In this way, the mobile users will have a fast and smooth experience using LN in a self-custodial method, without the complicity of running public routing nodes. Some users simply can’t do all those things, they just want to use LN for own payments.

I wrote all the documentation for Blixt wallet, explaining each app feature, with multiple guides and FAQ. Please read them all, are very interesting use cases.

And here is one that specifically talk about how to use Dunder LSP in your Blixt wallet.

The Dunder process flow is described in this simple scheme:

So what steps you should do as a LND node runner?

1. Install Dunder LSP software on your own node machine

2. Set your own Dunder rules for fees, size of the channels etc

3. Make some tests with your own Blixt wallet, opening an on-demand channel with 0-conf, instant

4. Make some more tests with your family/friends Blixt users, to be sure your node is responding well and can route well all the payments.

5. List your Dunder LSP services on the Blixt community peers - soon maybe this list will be integrated directly into Blixt UI so new users can pick easily their peers. Right now is just list where Blixt users are posting their preferred peers to use with Blixt, like a vouched list of peers.

6. Give feedback to Hampus, post issues on Dunder Github, if you have, participate with PRs for the code. Being open source also can be extended to be a LSP standard for other LN implementations and LN mobile nodes (Zeus, Mutiny, Electrum, Breez, Phoenix).

The network topology will be the following:

B - Lightning Box

This is a new feature for Blixt Wallet, starting with v0.6.9-420 and is based on a software package named Lightning Box, also created by Hampus.

Lightning Box is a Lightning Address provider for mobile nodes like Blixt Wallet, letting you receive Lightning Address payments directly to your phone.

This works in conjunction with the Persistent Mode released in v0.6.9, which allows Blixt Wallet to stay active in the background in order to receive payments.
You can also use this for nostr tipping.

For the moment the default Lightning Box is run on the Blixt Node server and offer a @ blixtwallet.com LN Address. But ANYBODY with a LND public node can run the Lightning Box server and offer LN Address for its own domain, self-custody.

Right now, the Blixt server is only forwarding the payments to Blixt users. Users must put their Blixt node wallet in "persistent mode" in order to receive these payments to their @ blixtwallet.com LN addresses.

So there is NO custody of the funds, or hold invoices, the LN box act as a forwarder.

It can be even used as a chat over LN, instant and fun, also supporting LUD-18 (adding an alias name to a payment). You can add in the contact list, all your regular LN addresses you are using frequently and have it at hand for chatting or sending funds easily. Now Blixt can be considered a full LN chat app 😂😂.

As you can see in this demo image, on the main screen of Blixt appear all the “chats” over LN using LN Box and LUD-18.

As you can see in the screenshot above, sending from SN account, is displayed nicely the logo + LN address + message. Same works for sending from Blixt, you can attach your Blixt LN Address or simply add the alias name (previously set in Blixt settings), or both.

This option from LUD-18 could be useful also for subscription services, where user can send a specific alias (is NOT your node alias or your real name!) and based on that you could be registered or receive back a specific message or whatever else.

Attaching an alias name (LUD-18)+ comment (LUD-12) to a LN payment can have multiple use cases!

• See here a video demonstration about how to setup your LN Address in Blixt.

• Here is the code for Lightning Box if you run it for yourself, for your family and friends, on your own node, with your own domain.

Happy Lightning with Blixt Node Wallet!

Only by collaborating, testing, using and improving we can go forward !

DISCLAIMER

I am not paid by Blixt or any other team/company. I just support for free their open-source solutions with guides. We MUST help each others if we want to go forward with Bitcoin adoption. They write code, I write guides.

I am writing guides and documentations, translations for many other Bitcoin solutions, for free. My life is dedicated to Bitcoin as a whole, as a way forward for a better world.

Don’t ask what Bitcoin did for you, ask what YOU did for Bitcoin!

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español

Updated version on my Github page

Yes, you hear it well: you are a merchant and you want your customers to start using Bitcoin! The onboarding process works on both ways.

This guide is about HOW to onboard new users, not to became a LN bank. So please don't come up with comments that "is custodial... bla bla bla". Yes, you can be the custodian, the LN bank for your customers, nothing wrong with that if the user are warned about the risks. If there's a trust between the parties, it is nothing wrong.

This is how we start slowly onboarding people. We MUST start using Bitcoin BEFORE the CBDCs are in place!

Recently Ben Arc announced a new feature for the LNbits TPoS:

• Nostr announcement

• Twitter announcement

Youtube video demo here:

Apart from new improvements for the LNbits extension, was added the possibility to sell BTC vouchers. Same as Azteco is doing. But this time ANYBODY with a LNbits instance can do it.

Conditions

• You are a small merchant, already accepting BTC

• You have a LNbits instance, for accepting BTC and many other cool stuff (see my many guides about it)

• You have also a printer for tickets or even this wonderful Android PoS with LNbits integrated

• You have setup the LNbits TPoS extension (from many others)

• You have a good LN node with good liquidity ready for funding your LNbits instance (see below my guides about LNbits and liquidity)

• You want your regular customers to start paying you in BTC, but they didn't started yet.

SCENARIO

You are just a regular small shop, grocery or whatever shop, bar, restaurant, that already accept BTC. Some customers are still paying you in fiat cash. Fine, but also they would like to start using BTC, and they don't know how to do it, how to start. Are your regular customers, you know them, they know you.

So they do their regular shopping and pay with cash, you gave them some change, in coins or bills. Then you ask them: "would you like to convert this small change into bitcoin?" Answer is yes.

Then go to your LNbits TPoS, put the amount in fiat and print the voucher code for LNURL-withdraw with the sats.

As a first time using Bitcoin it is recommended to help them with more instructions like: what wallet should install and redeem that LNURL voucher, how to do it, safety measures, how to stack, how to take self custody etc.

I would recommend to onboard first with simple solutions, even custodial if they prefer (but warn them). The first steps are always very hard for a noob. Depending on their knowledge level, suggest the app accordingly. See below in the links resources the guide about LN wallets comparison.

Custodial solutions can be used:

• Your own LNbits instance.

  Offer them temporary custody using your own LNBits! Read below a guide about how to use LNbits as a LN bank for your family and friends. And they don't even have to download any app, they could just use a LNBits account from your own LNbits instance. Of course, warn them that the funds are still in your custody and they should move them out into a self custody wallet. But for practicing and helping them with first steps, it is a nice and easy method.

• Blink wallet - works very easy and fast, fully supporting LNURL, open-source, no KYC (only the phone number)

• Walletano - web / PWA wallet, no app to install, no-KYC, very simple

• CoinOS - web / PWA wallet, no app to install, no-KYC, very simple

• LNTipBot Telegram - fast and simple, just open user Telegram, create the account and done, scan the LNURL voucher and withdraw the sats. Later user could link this account into Zeus or Bluewallet apps as LNDhub account and use it as a regular LN wallet.

• Bluewallet - same as Zeus, using the LNbits LNDhub account

• LifPay - a simple semi-custodial wallet, full LNURL support

• SatoshiPay - a simple app (Italian) that can be used to withdraw the sats from the voucher and later forward them into a self custody wallet. Based on Breez SDK.

• Wallet of Satoshi - yes, we can’t ignore them, we all know that they are in some trouble right now, but still could be a quick onboard solution. Proceed with caution!

Self-custodial wallets can be used:

• Phoenix - very good and simple wallet for onboarding, self-custodial

• Zeus - you can use it with your own LNbits LNDhub accounts or using any other custodial service like Alby, LNtipBot, that support LNDhub. Zeus is more complex for a noob, but is very powerful LN node. You can start also with Olympus by Zeus LSP opening a channel with the amount of sats from the voucher, but it require more steps, not a very fast onboarding with a LNURL-w voucher.

• Breez - very good LN node, that fully support LNURL, self-custodial

• Blixt - same as Zeus, self-custodial LN node, but the process of onboarding is not easy straight from the LNURL-voucher, this is more for advanced users.

And done! From now on, your recurring customers could exchange their fiat change from shopping into sats, each time they came to your shop.

I would not be worried about any "legal" repercussions. Bitcoin is digital P2P cash, another form of money that NONE of gov have power over it. Nobody can prohibit you to trade in whatever form of money or value.

Please don't confuse this aspect with "legal tender", that is totally another story !

What is a "legal tender"?

Any retailer or individual could refuse to use a legal tender. Nobody can force you to use it. Why? What is the point of a legal tender then?

The point is that you cannot force a retailer to accept legal tender or indeed any other form of tender. If, however, you buy something from them and there is no contractual barrier to the use of any form of tender, and you offer legal tender in payment, and they refuse it, then they cannot enforce the debt in court.

That's what legal tender means: it's about discharging debts. If you incur a debt you can discharge it with legal tender, but you cannot be forced to incur the debt in the first place, if you see what I mean...

Resources links:

Please bookmark all of them to study them before you start building your own scenario. Are full of details.

• LNBits Documentation wiki

• LNbits printable flyers

• Lightning wallets comparison guide

• Getting started with LNbits

• LNBits LN Bank

• LNbits for small merchants

• Operating with LN as a merchant

• Managing Lightning Node Liquidity

• Build your own NOSTR market with LNbits

• How to host your own LNbits instance on a SaaS server

• How to build your own LNbits server app

• How to use LNbits with streamer copilot

Resources links to be shared with the new Bitcoin users:

• The 5 stages to become a bitcoiner

• Bitcoin - Be your Banco proprio, think like a bank

• 21 reasons why Bitcoin will save the world

• How to start with Lightning Network

• Bitcoin Printable flyers

Note:

BTCpay also announced recently that will release a plugin for the same feature of TPoS ATM. Here is a demo by Rockstar developer. Same scenario but using BTCpay server solution.

DISCLAIMER

I am not paid by LNbits or any other team/company. I just support their open-source solutions with guides. We MUST help each others if we want to go forward with Bitcoin adoption. They write code, I write guides.

I am writing guides and documentations, translations for many other Bitcoin solutions, for free. My life is dedicated to Bitcoin as a whole, as a way forward for a better world.

Don’t ask what Bitcoin did for you, ask what YOU did for Bitcoin!

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇩🇪 Deutsch / 🇫🇷 Français / 🇮🇳 Hindi | 🇮🇹 Italiano | 🇭🇷 Hrvatski | 🇳🇱 Dutch

This article was registered with OP_RETURN at block height #807243

Updated on my Github page

I gather some ideas from other good fellow bitcoiners (Simply Bitcoin Telegram group) about what will be the 21 Orange Pills for a nocoiner and put them together into this simple guide.

To help them get onboard easily and having an idea about what will be their new journey into Bitcoinlandia.

I hope will be useful for many as a stating point.

₿ 💊 1. Start your Bitcoin education

Read ₿itcoin Whitepaper and “The Bitcoin Standard” book. Go to a bitcoin meetup in your area. Get comfortable with bitcoiners “language” (many terms will be new for you).

Read - The 5 stages to became a real bitcoiner, for more information and links.

₿ 💊 2. Choose a Bitcoin wallet

Download a Bitcoin wallet. Choose wisely which wallet, or get help from an old bitcoiner friend with more experience. Watch out, there are many scams out there.

Read - Lightning Wallets Comparison and How to start with Bitcoin wallets.

₿ 💊 3. Save your Bitcoin wallet

Save the wallet seed into a safe place (Not Your Keys = Not Your ₿itcoins). You can use many methods: hardware wallet, password manager (offline), paper, steel, memory, steganography etc.

Read - Be Your Own Bank - Think like a bank

₿ 💊 4. Keep private all your Bitcoin info details

Never reveal your seed or talk about it or how much you have (stacked).

₿ 💊 5. Don't trust, verify

Never trust someone else, only yourself. From now on it is your OWN responsibility over your own finances. Self education (to be able to verify) is important. Don’t delegate someone else managing your bitcoins. Learn to do it yourself!

₿ 💊 6. Start getting some bitcoins

Buy a small amount of bitcoin (even some satoshis) and test how to use your new wallet or with help from a bitcoiner, get some few sats to play around and get comfortable using it. Always double check links and addresses when moving coins.

₿ 💊 7. Stacking sats strategy

Start building your own strategy of accumulating (stacking sats) more BTC: buying from P2P exchanges or CEX, DCA through brokers, earning directly, selling goods/services for BTC on P2P marketplaces etc. Stay humble, stack sats! Remember, there are limited number of BTC in circulation, 21M.

From where you can get some bitcoins? Start here.

₿ 💊 8. Self custody of your bitcoins

Never leave your bitcoin on exchanges, always self custody (Not Your Keys = Not Your ₿itcoins!) Withdraw to your own personal wallets as fast as you can.

Bitcoin = Be your own bank, think like a bank.

₿ 💊 9. Price is an illusion of getting rich

Don't focus on the Bitcoin's price charts of today (is just a distraction), this is not an investment strategy, is a savings technology, it's your pension fund. Bitcoin is energy necessary to live, stored in a perfect way, as scarce money. So when you trade with it for goods and services, you are actually trading with energy.

₿ 💊 10. Bitcoin Circular Economy

Start the bitcoin circular economy, buy at least a few things you may need with bitcoin. do not buy crap things with bitcoin, only useful things in your life. Spend wisely your sats!

Pay your bills with Bitcoin - here is a list of places to start.

₿ 💊 11. Improve your knowledge

Knowledge is a life long pursuit. Learn more advanced tools: privacy tools, running a full node, a LN node, use many different tools as a merchant (if you are). For more you learn, is getting more fascinating and useful in your life. Bitcoin knowledge is power!

₿ 💊 12. Prepare yourself

Bitcoin will change your life totally. Continuously become more fit, more skilled, and wiser over time. Always question everything.

₿ 💊 13. NO SHITCOINS

Bitcoin, not “cryptos”. Never do shitcoining (anything that is not Bitcoin is a shitcoin). Shitcoining (cryptos) means stealing from others, scams and sustaining a putrid behavior. It's a SIN.

₿ 💊 14. Education matters

Continue educating yourself and your family, friends, improve your skills and knowledge about bitcoin continuously. Bitcoin world is in continuous change and new tools and software updates come up very often. Stay up to date with Bitcoin news (a good place to start is Stacker.News !

₿ 💊 15. Do something for Bitcoin

Participate to the Bitcoin system with anything you can: translations for open source software, coding/review code if you have skills, writing documentation, testing new apps and give feedback to developers.

₿ 💊 16. FIAT DELENDA EST

Slowly move out from fiat world. Is not easy, I know, takes time. For more we are using bitcoin as money in a bitcoin circular economy, stronger will be. For less and less we will use fiat money, quicker we will win and be free from fiat slavery. Don't feed the beast anymore!

Here is a must watch presentation by Jimmy Song - Fiat Delenda Est! that explains more why fiat world is an evil that must be eradicated / made obsolete.

₿ 💊 17. Merchants Bitcoin adoption

If you are a merchant, start accepting bitcoin as fast as you can and don't sell it back for fiat, NO MATTER WHAT. Or at least use it to pay your employees and/or suppliers. You are a very important link in the chain of Bitcoin circular economy! Or just save your BTC for later.

Here a list of real life examples of payments to merchants accepting Bitcoin.

₿ 💊 18. Incentives for paying with Bitcoin

accept bitcoin for you products/services at a better rate, with a specific discount for paying with BTC instead of fiat. Bitcoin is cash, not an asset!

₿ 💊 19. Be aware of scams

Don't "invest" your bitcoins expecting a return in all sorts of schemes and promises (scammers that promise yield).

₿ 💊 20. DYOR

Do your own research and not follow blindly any "bitcoin influencer" or MSM (legacy media). There's plenty of free documentation out there.

Commit your life into a 100% bitcoin mentality for at least 1 cycle (4 years between halvenings) so people can experience how the media feeds the same lies all the time. Feel with your skin in the game how supply/demand works for fiat (increasing and infinite supply) vs BTC (fixed).

₿ 💊 21. Became a sovereign individual

Fuck the banks and govs! Be a sovereign individual not a citizen fiat slave voting and putting his trust in politicians. Fiat delenda est!

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

If this bill passes both chambers and is signed into law, it will require all Americans to have a valid digital ID  -- IF they want to connect to the internet, open and maintain a bank account, obtain a passport, and gain access to medical care.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!

But what will be described below, is presented as a parody of all these events and possible scenarios. It can be valid for all people in the world not just for Americans. If you are really taking in consideration this guide, please let us know if you succeeded.

For who is this guide?

• You are a bitcoiner or at least you start learning about and have some BTC stash already.

• You want freedom, free market and a world where you could prosper and live in peace.

• You are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfil your goal. It is Bitcoin or nothing.

• You have some skills and you are willing to start a new life. A Bitcoin life.

• You need to run, your life, liberty and security is in danger.

• You are a bit crazy 😂 (yes, you need a bit of craziness to do the following).

For who IS NOT this guide?

• Statists that love the State and governments and kiss all politicians ass every 4 years, voting.

• Nocoiners. Those that lost valuable years from their life and still deny the power of Bitcoin.

• Shitcoin maxis, those that hate Bitcoin (for its success). There’s no place for them in El Salvador.

• Fiat maxis, those that know about Bitcoin but still living in a fiat world and want to continue like that.

• Politicians and government employees. Yes, you motherfucker FBI agent reading this article. I don’t care!

• NPCs that have no clue about what is going on in this fucked up world.

So, let’s consider you are an old bitcoiner, trapped in a fiat world, trying to survive, trying to convince as many lost souls you can to start using Bitcoin. But your efforts are in vain, you see around you only NPCs, gov. agents that want to put you in jail or harass you every second, brain dead shitcoiners.

Why to El Salvador?

Yes, many will ask, but why to El Salvador? Why not to a fucking jungle in Amazonia or on the same island where Mircea Popescu and John McAfee are living right now, snorting coke and living like kings with 20 girls.

Because El Salvador is THE SAVIOUR! Is the symbol of freedom, is the First Bitcoin Country, the example for many to come. If the bitcoiners will gather there and especially the smart ones and with a lot of bitcoins and business ideas.

Because El Salvador in few years will be the new Hong Kong or new Singapore. It’s a small country but with a lot of power in the hands of bitcoiners.

What options do you have?

Taking a plane as a regular traveller? They will put you on the wall and search every inch of your body for a bitcoin wallet. Not talking about they will not let you go until you pay taxes for “capital gains” and all that bullshit. Passports, papers, all that bullshit etc. You just want to be left alone in peace.

Recently I was telling you the story of how Fiatjaf escaped to El Salvador, that could be an option, but risky and costly. Also accidents with these small planes are happening more often.

Option A – Sea shipping containers

Talking with other (crazy) bitcoiners, we end up to the conclusion that we could use shipping containers. Yes the old loving smuggling containers. Sounds crazy idea, but it could work. You could put all your crap stuff inside (but who want to take his crap to El Salvador if you already have bitcoins?) and also you could have a stock of beers and food inside. If you want to take your mining rigs with you also could fit inside. Please don’t take your pets (dogs, cats, snakes etc), will be hard to survive.

Steps to do:

• Dump all your passports, gov IDs, papers that mention your identity to the toilet. Forget about them. Sell all the crap you have for more bitcoins. You don’t need that crap. Carry as less is possible with you. You have bitcoins, you have all.

• Go to a veterinary and get a travel passport for your dog/cat/whatever. Later you will see why.

• Secure a copy of all your bitcoins in safe remote places. Why? Because travelling with a Bitcoin hardware wallet could be dangerous and bring too much attention (memorize seed words, upload on a server a steganography an image with your seed, insert the seed into a blog post, send a letter to your mother, even this guide could contain 12 words for a seed etc)

• Prepare your Lightning Network wallets with sats. Yes, in El Salvador you will need it, to live off.

• Prepare a shipping container. Do all the paperwork and even bribe custom agents to close the eyes to that container. Put yourself inside, comfortably, you will have a long journey.

• Arrange with the ship captain to drop your container near the shores of El Salvador. Later you will see why.

• If somebody is opening the container door during the journey or when you arrive, just say “I identify as a cat”. You are free to be whatever you want and they cannot say anything against, otherwise they are racists and persecute you as a minority (due to the new woke laws)

  

When you arrive (after 2 months):

• Mr.M, an old bitcoiner refugee in El Salvador for many years, will watch the shores of El Salvador beach and when your container arrive, he will come to open the door. Otherwise you will just die inside. He will be YOUR SAVIOUR! You owe him your life, remember that! Mr.M also is running a new rehabilitation program for all bitcoin refugees, named Start10.

• Mr.M will take you to an undisclosed location, where in the past all the Salvadoran gangs were having their HQ and now is refurbished for bitcoin refugees.

• Mr.M will provide you shelter and food. But will cost you sats, a lot of sats, so be prepared with your wallets, because Mr.M hate fiat, he accept ONLY Bitcoin. 10k sats/h a hammock between 2 banana trees, 100k sats a special luxury covered hammock. All rentals include a Japanese toilet heated by his BTC miners. Iguana barbecue will cost 250k sats/ration. Bananas are on the house.

• After the welcome party, you are allowed in that refugee camp only 1 week. During this week you have to find your own place in El Salvador. You could use the expats Telegram group for more resources to find your place in El Salvador. They are very helpful.

  

Option B – Trucks shipping containers

This is a special case for Canadians, trying to escape from the communist Chinada. Talk with your trucker friends and organize a big trucks shipment carrying these containers. More trucks, more containers, more Canadian refugees, better. Right now there is a growing number of Canadian refugees in El Salvador. They already want to buy a volcano and all the land around to declare it New Bitcoin Canada. They were so pissed about so much snow, 8 months of the year, that now they want live inside the volcano.

Steps to do:

• Arrange with some truckers a trip from Canada to El Salvador, carrying your container. Is better to organize it like a truckers protest, so in this way they will let you go. This was actually the mistake that Canadian truckers did: they remained in the same location. A protest must be done with an exodus, moving around. So say: this is a trip protest, we drive from Canada until South America. Nobody will wants protesters in their jurisdiction, they will even help you going through all borders, just to be sure you are not on their working shift. So nobody will give a shit what you carry inside the containers.

• Prepare yourself to be inside for a loooong journey. Water, food and patience you must have. Will be a hell of a journey so this will be the most difficult challenge you would have in your life.

• All the points presented on the previous option A.

When you arrive (after nobody knows how many months):

• Take a fucking shower. Why? Because you will look like this and nobody will want to talk with you anymore.

• Contact Mr.M (see previous chapter) and he will help you to get “onboard”. Be nice and pay your “seat”, otherwise he will transform you into a fertilizer for his bananas trees.

• Contact the expats Canadians group and find your place in El Salvador. Again, be nice and demonstrate you are a real bitcoiner. Otherwise they will kick you out or worse will tell to Bukele that you are an ex-gang member and try to infiltrate back into the country and destroy the Bitcoin peace.

Option C – take a Fedex special delivery

Yes, this is one of the most crazy and wonderful escape to the free world.

So FEDEX have a special delivery system, that nobody is looking inside. You prepare the delivery for yourself, as a special delivery for a domestic animal. Yes, you read it, you are a domestic animal. Why not?

YOU CAN IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS A CAT AND DELIVER YOURSELF THROUGH FEDEX.

If somebody will complain about that, just accuse them of racism, bigotry or whatever woke persecution. They will just STFU, scared the shit out of them. But yes, prepare all the paperwork as delivering a cat.

Just in case they will put you in an unpressurized cage, take an oxygen mask with you. The trip will not be so long as on a ship or truck, just few hours or maximum 1 day.

When you arrive:

• Always sustain that you are a rabid cat. But remember, in El Salvador do not say you identify as an iguana. They will eat you, because iguanas in El Salvador are a delicatessen. Bukele even built a dogs hospital a year ago, so maybe they will put you in a triage for a while, but no worry, if you have bitcoins, you are welcomed.

• Once you get free from the triage, contact Mr.M and expats group to settle your stay. Be nice, these people just want to help you onboard, so don’t be a dick and abuse of their help.

• You could even use the shipping container as your temporary house, until you find a good place. Or just live inside, you already get used to it. Soon will be anyways a new town built of all these containers from refugees.

So that’s all I would say, if you want to follow all these crazy scenarios, it’s up to you. My only advice is to be a nice person, a nice bitcoiner, bring peace and bitcoins to the new world, respectful and be creative.

I will come also to El Salvador but my method is a bit different, I will just take a plastic bottles raft that I prepared for the last 2 years. Now I am going to jump onboard…

I hope you enjoyed this parody guide and think seriously to escape to El Salvador.

Help me Obi Wan Bukele... you are my only hope.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

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🇪🇸 Español

Updated Nov 23, 2024 on Github page

Lately I receive quite a lot of questions about Lightning Address. Many people will still ask because is a new term, something that was never invented, a new concept, especially for NOSTR and other use cases.

Some are concerned about custodial ones or simply want their own fancy LN address.

Glossary:

LN = Lightning Network

sats = the smallest unit of 1 BTC (1 BTC = 100M sats)

KYC = Know Your Customer (verification crap)

NOSTR = Open Protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social networks.

NIP-05 = Mapping Nostr Keys to DNS-based Internet Identifiers

So I will try to explain some aspects about Lightning Address, how you should start, how you should do it as a new LN user.

What is a Lightning Address ?

A LN Address is nothing more than a human readable address from a LNURL.

A LNURL is actually a http request for a LN invoice. So in order to have a LNURL/LN Address you need to have a web server that run those requests towards a LN node (your node or custodial node) and forward the LN invoice back to the payer.

That’s why a self custodial LNURL / LN Address is not so easy to have, in just one click, or wallets that instantly create one for you. Somebody have to setup that web request server and that must be YOU if you want self custodial.

Read more on LightningAddress.com

The LNURL web server could be run (is just a small piece of software):

• On the same machine/device as your node, using your own domain name

• On a separate machine, local or remote, pointing to your node, using your own domain name

• Federated one, using your own domain name. You do not control totally the web server, but the server owner gives you the ability to receive requests for LNURL / LN Address and payments goes straight to your node. This is NOT custodial service, is just a forwarding service. So the owner of the service is not even touching your funds, it just exchange information about web requests.

• Custodial - you just receive a dedicated LNURL / LN Address, with THEIR domain name. The funds are held in their custody but some could offer direct forwarding to your own node, instantly. So the custody is minimal.

Why you should use different types of LN Addresses?

Private or Public ?

I personally use many LN addresses, public ones and private ones, custodial and non-custodial. All depending the use case.

Let’s define what is public and what is private (I see many people confused).

Public = anything that you would do in public, online, where many people could see it, read it, copy it, track it etc. This “identity” must be a nym, an alias, a fake name, NOT your real name that you use in your private life. Public life especially online must be your “decoy life”, your public face.

Private = only stuff you do in private, in your family, with close friends, people that know you in real life, in person. Stuff that you DO NOT reveal in public, otherwise became… public information.

NEVER link public info with private info. But privately you could have interaction between these 2 identities moving funds between them in a private manner.

A LN Address is NOT meant to be your regular way of income!

A public LN Address is more for tips, small donations, nostr zaps, or even if you want to receive a message through LN. People could send you a private message attached to 1 sat tip over LN Address.

A private LN Address is more for your private income, let’s say you have a business that could receive payments for invoices, items etc. You could just inform your client to pay to a private LN address, using your business domain name. No need to generate a LN invoice for each payment they have to do to you.

I use public ones, custodial, for public stuff, where my real identity is not revealed. Almost all of these custodial DO NOT require a full KYC so is not a big deal using them. You just have to move the funds out, to your own private wallets wherever you consider is a good amount.

I use private LN address for PRIVATE stuff (private businesses, private communication with people that really know me, family, friends etc), stuff that is NOT PUBLIC.

People should learn to make the difference between public and private damn it! Seems that many still don't know it.

All this crazy hysteria with “use self-custodial LN address for your nostr zaps !” I consider it a total bullshit unnecessary. I really don’t give a shit that you send me a zap on nostr to a public custodial LN Address. NOBODY really knows where those sats will go in the end.

Custodial or self-custodial?

Why not both?

Custodial ones are the public ones.

Your decoy, your plausible deniability, your public face, your cache / buffer zone stash. Let’s be honest, how many sats you will receive in one day for example that would be such a problem to be custodial? If you depend on those sats received from some meaningless donations or tips on NOSTR, then you are … short Bitcoin.

If you receive large amounts, then withdraw to your private wallets each day. No big deal. Think about these public custodial (especially those that are NON-KYC) as a good opsec, hiding your real destination of those sats. You could move the sats through many different LN wallets from there ending up into a swap LN to onchain to your HODL wallet and NOBODY will ever know where your nostr tips went.

Use multiple ones. Never concentrate everything in one place, never count only on one address. Use multiple ones, for many different types of income. I think I use 7 or 8 public custodial, some with more traffic, some I keep them as backup, some just for fun, testing etc. I periodically move out the funds from them. And is fine.

Remember: always use the 3 levels stashing: HODL, cache, spending.

Self-custodial are the private ones.

You can even use the private ones to forward the funds from public ones. Some solutions like LNbits already have extensions that forward and split automatically any payment received to a LN Address. I also use decoy private ones when I do the, so the custodian will not make a tracing based on destination. Be inventive here.

Also the private ones, use multiple ones, each for a use case or place where you publish them.

How to achieve such thing as Lightning Address?

You have many ways as I said: federated, self-custodial, custodial. Let’s see each method and solution.

A - Federated Bridge server

Using a federated server means you will have to own a domain name and full control of its DNS records, to be able to configure it and link it to the LNURL server. Also you will have to have a LN node to which you point where to go the payments (could be Tor or clearnet or Tailscale).

I recommend BridgeAddress from Fiatjaf (NOSTR creator), is the perfect solution. Why? Because:

• you can use your own domain name for the address.

• is offering a lot of connection types directly to your node or other funding sources.

• easy to setup, in max 10 min is functional (depending on your DNS provider).

• can be used with a Tor or ZeroTier / Tailscale node.

This method is good, if you run just a simple node at home and do not want to configure a web server on your machine / IP, so a 3rd party will handle that for you, but the funds are still in your custody.

Yes, you need a bit of trust in fiatjaf, for handling your LNURL requests. But if you do not know who is fiatjaf in Bitcoin world, I don't know what are you doing here...

B - Federated LN Address service

This type of Federated servers are the ones that offers you a domain name (sometimes funny) for your LN address but the payments goes straight to your node, no custody.

PayAddress.co | BTCAdresse.de | LNBitcoin.cz | LNPay.cz | LNAddress.com | LNAddress.me | LNAddress.net | Lightning.by | Lightning.re | SatsPay.to | Sats.rs

This method is good to be used as a decoy address. Is not showing your private domain, but still is forwarding the sats straight to your private node. No custody.

C - Full Self-Custody Server

Using your own LNURL web server with your own LN node. You must have some technical skills to install the software on your node or web server, but some of them have very well explained documentation on their github page.

And are many implementations out there. Please consult the documentation page.

But I will mention here some of them:

• https://github.com/nbd-wtf/satdress

• https://github.com/SatSale/SatSale

• https://github.com/niteshbalusu11/rustdress

• https://github.com/hieblmi/go-host-lnaddr

• https://github.com/bumi/lnme

• https://github.com/Dolu89/ligess/

• https://github.com/GaloyMoney/galoy

D - Lightning Box

A special case in this category would be Blixt Lightning Box. Is still in development but soon will be released. Blixt is a self-custodial mobile LND node with many features (like Dunder LSP that also could be run in a self custodial mode or offered as a service) and trying to mitigate a convenient way for having a self-custodial LN Address that users could configure it in two ways:

• Bridge mode: Blixt server will handle all the requests for the LN Address userX@blixtwallet.com, will hold the sats until user’s Blixt node come online and then will forward the sats to it. Will be just a small period of time in custody.

• Self-custody: Blixt users could install the LN Box on their own servers and handle their own domain, then forward the sats to their own Blixt mobile nodes. This option is very interesting, if you run this LN Box for your family and friends and they want to use your domain name for their LN Address (see point B above). Later could even be run with multiple domain names as a service.

  Here you have a guide about running your own Lightning Box.

Blixt is also preparing a version for desktop (already have one for macOS) and this will open a huge opportunity to use Blixt node in many ways together with a Blixt mobile node. So stay tuned and learn first how to use this amazing mobile LN app.

E - Zeus LN mobile node

With the release v.0.8.0, Zeus is offering up a self-custodial lightning address that is called ZEUS PAY. This is the first ever offering of a self-custodial lightning address in a mobile app.

ZEUS PAY leverages user-generated preimage hashes, hodl invoices, and the Zaplocker Nostr attestation scheme to allow users who may not be online 24/7 to receive payments to a static lightning address. Users just need to log in to their ZEUS wallets within 24 hours to claim the payments, otherwise they will be returned to the sender.

Furthermore, ZEUS PAY can function as an onboarding method. Users have the ability to automatically request new channels from our LSP, OLYMPUS by ZEUS, with the service.

This is a fantastic solution for service workers, nomads, dissidents, and others to accept tips and donations without sacrificing custody. We eagerly look forward to all the new people that are onboarded to Bitcoin with this new functionality.

ZEUS PAY is available, not only just to embedded node users, but also remote LND users.

F - LNbits Server

Another special use case is using LNbits as LNDHUB and LNURL server provider. Again, could be used in multiple ways: self-custodial and custodial or forwarder.

a. Custodial / forwarder mode

Remember this should be used only as a temporary solution or as a forwarder (decoy) in case you do not want to use your own domain name and node. The public demo LNbits server could be anytime in maintenance mode, being just a demonstration server. But for small payments and temporary ones is OK.

So you could create a free account on Legend.LNbits.com (save / bookmark your new account created) and configure a LNURL-p with a LN Address. It will be like yourusername@legend.lnbits.com.

What is interesting in this case is that with the Scrub and Split extensions you could forward all the sats received onto this LNURL / LN Address to any other external LNURL / LN Address you have, in self custody.

b. Self custodial instance

So, with a self-custodial LNbits instance, you would have your own domain name for your LN address and manage multiple ones for your family members or friends.

Here is the Wiki Documentation about how to install and manage your own LNbits.

If you want more guides about LNbits use cases I wrote several ones:

• Getting started with LNbits

• Start your NOSTR-market with LNbits

• LNbits SaaS - a solution for schools and events

• How to use LNbits streamer copilot

• Private Banks over the Lightning Network

• Build your own LNbits apps Server

• LNbits for small merchants

• The Bank of LNbits

There are many ways to play around with these tools, especially if you want to have a more private LN address.

F - Custodial Lightning Address

Yes, the (in)famous custodial ones that some people hate them. I don’t. I learned how to use them in my advantage, as a decoy, as a “public face” that could take all the punches in the face with your zaps, tips, sats whatever. Like a high wall that nobody can see what is behind. These are for small amounts that are later forwarded to my private wallets. I use these anywhere I have to use the nym “DarthCoin”.

Some of them are very useful and most of them NON-KYC (important thing). These services offer multiple features not just a LN address and worth paying attention.

Here are some that I use and I know:

• GetAlby - Browser extension with multiple use cases (NIP-05 verification, Youtube 1 click tips/donations, lndhub account importable in Zeus/Bluewallet)

• LN.Tips - Telegram bot, for tips, LN address, LNURL, lndhub account etc

• Stacker.News - Bitcoin news aggregator/forum account with LN address, NIP-05

• Walletano - simple web wallet with LN Address and multiple accounts

• CoinOS - web wallet, POS, LN address, swap service, very good services

• ZBD - gamers wallet with browser extension, LN Address, streamer copilot and multiple other useful features (until certain level is NON-KYC)

• Mash - similar to GetAlby but focused more on web widgets and other features

• Fountain - podcasting app with integrated LN Address.

• Wallet of Satoshi - simple mobile LN wallet application with LN Address

• Blink - simple mobile LN wallet with LN Address (KYC with a mobile number)

• AcceptLN - Every email address now accepts Bitcoin Lightning

• Minibits - Cashu wallet with built in Ln address

• Cashu Address - Receive Lightning payments on your Cashu Address. Either sign up and claim your username, or use any nostr public key

For more custodial services that could offer a LN Address please consult this amazing website presenting a lot of Lightning services - StackSats.how

For those who are looking for a simple quick solution to use a LN Address for their NOSTR accounts, I suggest to not complicate too much these things. Keep it simple. Nobody will die for a meaningless of sats received as zaps for some memes.

I personally use on NOSTR a GetAlby LN address for zaps and a Stacker.News NIP-05 that I could also switch to it anytime as LN Address (in case GetAlby is down or vice-versa). I really don’t want to “verify my identity” with a personal private domain on NOSTR.

Ah, if I would run a business account on NOSTR, with a NOSTR-market shop, yes, then I would use a personal domain name for LN address and NIP-05, because I would need to show some proof who am I to my customers. But just for posting memes and chat with others under my nym DarthCoin, I will never use my private domains.

I am not advocating to use only custodial services, I am just pointing out that people should know how to take advantage of these services, in specific cases.

So think again - how would you use all these Lightning Addresses ?

P.S. - If you know or find other services, software, applications, bundle solutions that offer a LN Address and are not mentioned here, please let me know, I will gladly add them to this guide. I am sure I missed some, but can’t remember right now which one.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

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🇪🇸 Español

This is a prologue of a book, written by Toxikat27, all credits goes to him.

Twitter account: AxiomsOfLiberty | Podcast Axioms Of Liberty

This article is made with everyone in mind but what I want to make everyone understand is that YOU are a slave. In every context that the word entails. But don’t be triggered by the word “slavery”.

Everyone in modern day is in one facet or another a slave to the system. You have to file for permits:

• to renovate your home

• to have a license to fish

• to get married

• to gather rainwater

• to travel

• permission to use your money

I could talk at length providing examples of how everything in today's society is permissioned at varying degrees. We think we have rights because of the constitution.

This is a false security as the document itself is us telling our government that in which we believe we should have. If anything hasn’t been made any clearer in the last 3 years of tyranny Is that these rights are us asking our government not to violate which they’ve clearly proven they will when it suits their ends. One could ascertain a comparison between the times of today to the days of old in which slavery was rife in our society at large for almost a century.

While making such a bold stark comparison I can see that this article is going to ruffle some feathers among the community, allow me to make my case before you allow your mind to attack such an idea before fully realizing the similarities of each of these periods of time.

For as long as humans have expanded across the earth, slavery has been right along with it. From the earliest records of it in biblical scripture, to the most recent accounts coming out of China. If there's a person / party / agency with a monopoly on violence there has always been slavery constituted through these means albeit for gains of monetary, territorial, political and even infamy gains. While every instance in which slavery has occurred, massive injustices have been brought to bear against humanity as a whole.

The modern-day human in societies with viable property rights is lead to believe that they are free from birth to death. All the while they live under an authoritative type figure of rule that they must obey and adhere to or else financial, societal, imprisonment punishment is brought upon them. The largest fallacy the most believe that is taught by their overlords is that without them, their fellow man would rape and pillage till kingdom come. If you were to ask any one human on the street if they would beat their neighbor for just cause they'd more often than not disagree they would be able to do so. Now if you took that same scenario and slapped a person with a badge and gun in there everyone would rightfully cheer the beatings of their neighbors because if they just did what they were told it wouldn’t have happened to them.

The American slavery Era in which millions of Africans were brought to be sold and work for the plantation owners is an era that is frowned upon and talked about as a bleak period of American history. The plantations served as the modern-day city state for the era. Each master has his/her own set of rules in which they enforced upon the slaves. Some were given greater status over others if they were “trusted” by the master. These individuals inevitably felt a superiority to the other slaves and spout the rule of law of their owners to the subsequent slaves while they used their position to gain favor with their masters. Being with the master gave a Stockholm syndrome vibe that their oppressor meant well by given them small “freedoms” in exchange for their obedience. The slave owners figured out very quickly that if you gave more freedom to its slaves, they become more productive, even thanking you for your “fair” treatment but the rule of I own you must not be forgotten.

Enter the emancipation proclamation of 1863 abolishment of all slavery statewide. The slave owners which did nothing of any productive value now had fields of crops with no one to tend to them. You could imagine their dismay that they would fail without their slaves to keep them afloat and maintain profits. Now while slavery of this era was strictly placed upon certain ethnic groups of peoples, the modern-day era of financial and societal slavery begins to make more sense.

Why enslave physically only a certain subset of people when through proxy of federal decrees and currency control you could literally enslave the globe to your own ends all the while everyone is none the wiser to their own enslavement. While they believe them themselves to be free, they will be more productive, and they will thank you for your ever so gracious rule of law keeping them safe and secure. Even those closest to the master (government) I.e., federal agents, government officials, federal employees will hail to their good intentions and how they mean well for society as a whole. Just as the “trusted” slaves did to their prior slave masters.

The federal reserve is by decree the worlds slave master. Each and every action taken by them effects the global markets. They use their “tools” in order to manipulate interest rates thus sending ripple effects felt across the globe. They have effectively out of desperation created a system in which the world is at their whim. Now this isn't some play at some wild conspiracy theory that there's some shadowy super occult that put these decrees into place that got us to where we are today. I think that by nature of the beast that is fiat money they did their best to ensure insolvency was to never metastasize in the markets as it would've been politically indigestible. So, they have continually kicked the can down the road for the past century. Just as many slave owners took to the political apparatus to try and legitimize slavery for as long as possible. Even out right declaring civil war to ensure that it wouldn’t become illegal.

During these times of slavery there were many a hero that came to fight for the just side of humanity. Harriet Tubman conducted the underground railroad which was a secret company which took slaves on the run to the free north. Robert Smalls flee from slavery to sailor then senator. Fredrick Douglass exceptional orator, writer, and freedom activist. All of these humans took it upon themselves to go against the status quo and fight for what they believed in. Much like all the cypherpunks on the mailing list in which Satoshi communicated with. Each of them knew the vast importance of creating a money that could deviate from the state and be set on its own. Bitcoin is such an idea, just as freedom was back then. It gives you the freedom to dictate your energy as you see fit without the authoritarian overlords of present day to block, censor, prevent, dilute such actions from occurring.

Today you are “allowed” to move about the country if you follow CDC guidelines. You were “allowed” to keep your government job if you took an experimental vaccine. The similarities of these eras are eerily growing in number by the day. What will be the outcome when the day comes that need to be allowed to make an economical transaction? With the way things are going I fear it won't be long before such things take place. This is where Bitcoin comes in and makes all of these things mute. Every dollar into Bitcoin network is a dollar away from the fiat Ponzi. The only reason these overlords are able to enforce their decrees is because they have an unlimited amount of capital in order to fund themselves and their thugs that do their bidding and enforce such egalitarian ideas.

Millions of slaves were killed or worked under slavery to their deaths during this era. Not much has changed in this sense when thugs with badges incarcerate, harm, threaten and kill millions of Americans across the nation for not complying with their subsequent jurisdiction's decrees. All the while absolving themselves of any wrong doing against their fellow man by the excuse “I am just doing my job.” while many of the boomer prior generations never seen an issue with how things were and continued to work until they died for the overlords to wage war across the globe with their tax dollars.

Just as there was a for slavery and against slavery public sentiment one cannot ignore the similarities to the vaccine mandates dividing a nation into 2 distinct sides, among other hot topics of debate that further drive the nation into disarray. When will the topic of state money and non-state money bubble to the forefront of minds everywhere? I think such a war on currency is already upon us.

The frontal disinformation assault on bitcoin in the daily corporate sponsored media grows more prevalent by the day. As this topic begins to make those on the edge of the rabbit hole ask themselves the question “what is money?” the debate will become the utmost deciding factor for whether you agree or disagree with certain groups of people.

Pro-slavery enthusiast would petition that the slaves' lives were better with slavery than they would be without. Just as modern-day statist all agree that with the state's decrees enable the overall betterment of society at hand. When you can look around and see the decisions of the bureaucrats' decrees vehemently violate and hinder the progression of society at large daily. Pro-slavery advocates would decree that slave trading was a net good for society as it bolstered the economy and its production. You can see today that the Federal Reserve spouts similar theatrics when it comes to things like Quantitative easing, taxation, or interest rate setting all of which are theft of human time through the vile and unforeseen destruction of everyone's unit of account.

Bitcoin is in itself an idea for freedom. It allows one to encapsulate their energy, time, and will into a protocol that can't be stopped, changed, or moved for any reason. Imagine the will of a human that knows with the utter most certainty that the work they do today can and will be accessible to them and their descendants forever. As Bitcoin permeates throughout society at large it will put an end to the invisible hand of slavery that has controlled every human's decision making and brought forth the rot that fiat money enables. Gone will be the days of distrusting other humans as we will have base layer of trust that will inevitably guide each one of us like the north star the guided many a slave to freedom in the days of old.

How does bitcoin end slavery you ask?

Well as Bitcoin is a bearer asset it's no longer subjected to the whim of a third parties' liability as a risk of default this is by nature the essence of our current monetary system. It's all debt every bit of it, debt instruments, debt derivatives, debt insurance and debt tokens. It is all promises to someone else. By nature, such a system is one of ensuring those that are within it can never escape and are forced into a life of servitude to another and another and up the cascade goes until the top.

Bitcoin is a system of property rights. No new tokens can be issued by anyone for any reason. Only those that do the work can be supplied the newest issuance. Unlike our current system where if you know the right bankers or politicians you can get all the new debt tokens you desire and below market rates. When you can earn something that isn't dependent on someone else you shall be set free from the whims of political decrees and no longer a slave to the continual debt Ponzi.

Remember the monopoly on violence earlier? That only ever works in the physical realm. If someone was doing something you didn't like you just used your power to take all their things and thus furthering your own power, while either killing them or enslaving them to bend to your will if they didn’t cooperate with your decrees. With 12 or 24 words memorized in your head this flips that power dynamic back to the individual. No longer will a thug with a gun profit off your hard work when you disagree with their decrees. Yes, they could still kill you but in the end, they get nothing. Not many governments would last if they kept killing off all their tax cattle and not directly profiting from doing so. Imagine had something similar was available to the slaves as they worked for their masters and they masters had to directly get the slave to give up the access to the work they had done. There would've never been a profitable slave trade to begin with.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate this work by Toxikat27, you can send him some satoshis through LN:

• or using his Lightning Address to hierarchy2787@ln.tips

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇮🇳 Hindi | 🇮🇹 Italiano

Updated on my Github page

I see many people asking this question over and over: “when we will see Bitcoin mass adoption?” or “what can we do towards Bitcoin mass adoption?”.

My simple TLDR answer is: when people will learn to be sovereign individuals.

First of all, let’s see WHO is asking these kind of questions, because not everybody have the interest in seeing this “mass adoption”.

There are some “categories” of people, based on their level of interest, education, knowledge, social position, political view. We will always have these categories, no matter what.

• idiots enemies - those that hate Bitcoin just because it exist, it’s against their small wiped brain. These are the enemies of entire human race.

• clueless normies - those that never read or used Bitcoin in their life and maybe will never will, are pure NPCs. The mass that will just follow “what they told”.

• confused statists - those that want Bitcoin, but under state regulations.

• tech passionate - coders, tech people, that only want Bitcoin as a technology. Not interested in “fuck the banks” etc, Bitcoin is just a simple tech tool for them.

• confused shitcoiners - special category of weak twisted minds that still didn’t understand the meaning of life.

• passionate bitcoiners - new bitcoin users that love Bitcoin but still don’t have enough knowledge.

• Bitcoin Maxis - those that reached an elevated level of knowledge of how Bitcoin works, but are still confused how Bitcoin will fuck the govs and banks.

• Toxic Bitcoin Maxis - those that reached and extreme level of maximalism and already saw the light at the end of tunnel, nothing can touch or affect them. Very few people will even understand why they are so toxic.

For all those that want to climb the knowledge ladder of Bitcoin, I wrote a dedicated guide here. Is not easy and take a lot of time and dedication. But worth it 100%.

You may ask, what does it means: “to be a sovereign individual"?”

The detailed answer is in another of my guides: Bitcoin and Natural Law.

Now, let’s see in simple steps how we can achieve that “Bitcoin mass adoption”.

So if you are one of those that really want Bitcoin mass adoption, then focus on these steps, first for yourself and later help your close ones (family and friends, local communities).

Don’t go screaming to politicians or give them Bitcoin books or try to explain them that you want / need Bitcoin. Politicians are NEVER on your side, they are not there to help you. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT FACT.

Bitcoin mass adoption WILL NEVER COME FROM YOUR POLITICIANS OR GOVERNMENTS, will come from you, from each individual that start using it.

This is a very long journey, don’t expect that in few years everybody will achieve it. Have patience, perseverance and dedication into fighting this war against tyranny.

Step 1 - LEARNING

Without education that create a strong base of knowledge, people will never understand how to use Bitcoin and what really is Bitcoin. They will never understand WHY Bitcoin will save the world.

And without this base knowledge, you can forget about “mass adoption”. Bitcoin will be just used in underground economies, by people that will decide to live outside of putrid tyrannical societies.

Do not ignore this step, you will always have to learn something new and life is a pursuit of knowledge. Your knowledge about Bitcoin is your most valuable and strong “weapon” against bullshitism, against those that will try to confuse you, to deceive you, to fool you, to manipulate you with all kind of other crap.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

Step 2 - PRACTICE

What is the point of learning something good in your life, but you never put in practice?

So start using your Bitcoin as money, slowly, small amounts, testing, having fun.

Go and support your near small merchants that accept Bitcoin, check on BTCmap.org and also check here some examples of real life experience paying with Bitcoin.

You do not have to spend all your sats now! Not at all. Just practice few times. You still don’t have that position / level that you could start living on Bitcoin Standard.

Step 3 - STOP BEING A SLAVE

This is quite important step. And hard. And you will need to study even more than just Bitcoin. And the hardest point will be to CHANGE YOUR MIND.

We were conditioned for many centuries to think and live like slaves, even that many couldn’t not imagine that is possible. Yes, it is, and we were modern slaves.

So how to step out of the slavery cage:

• Natural law - plenty of resources here

• Stop voting for politicians. Stop being a "citizen” (aka shitizen slave). Stop giving them a reason to exist. You are a living wo/man not a vessel / citizen. Learn WHO YOU REALLY ARE.

• Stop paying taxes. Yes I will scream that out loud. Please, don’t come with any excuse like “who will build the roads”. Paying taxes means supporting slavery. Roads will still be built by private individuals, don’t worry. You still don’t know how to do it? Here is your start. And learn more.

• Move somewhere else, where you can have more freedom, out of the big cities. Change your life style, don’t be afraid, nothing bad will happen to you. All the fear is only into your mind, they trained you to be afraid, so they can control you.

Step 4 - COMMUNITY MERCHANTS

You already reached a level when you see how the world could work better without any “help” from the state, politicians, govs, banks and all that crap.

Start building your community, with like minded people. Help each others. Try to be self sufficient as much as you can.

Check on local farm producers and if they do not accept BTC yet, convince them, educate them, help them doing it.

Live a simple and healthy life, out of any stress, as much is possible into nature.

Bitcoin will be your community freedom money. Start EARNING in Bitcoin and never go back to shitcoin fiat. Reject as much as you can to use fiat, in any shape or form.

For more will be used, Bitcoin will became stronger. Don’t give that power to the fiat shitcoins, because of convenience.

Support and help those merchants that accept Bitcoin directly. Boycott those that still refuse to accept Bitcoin as money.

If you still feed your merchant with your VISA card, that merchant will NEVER be interested into accepting Bitcoin. Don’t let those companies trying to fool you with their shity “bitcoin debit cards”. It’s a trap!

Merchants adoption is the most last important step before mass adoption.

Why?

Because without them to provide you products and services, Bitcoin will be worthless, powerless, just a code in a computer. Those merchants will start slowly to accept it, will hold it firstly, but once they get more and more BTC received, will start paying their workers and suppliers in BTC.

Once from 10 merchants in a town, 4-5 already accept BTC, you will see how also the others will be interested.

And this is how slowly the Bitcoin circular economy start: with merchants. All the rest is just noise. No matter what you will hear from politicians, govs, legal tender bullshit, investments crap etc all that will be for nothing.

Bitcoin is a grass roots movement, that start from the bottom and going slowly to the top.

Step 5 - MASS ADOPTION

That will happen when almost ALL merchants in your city will use Bitcoin.

Then all those clueless normies, statists and bitcoin haters will realize that they are late to the game, is their DEFEAT. Those will start learning a hard life lesson:

BITCOIN IS FREEDOM, IS FREEDOM MONEY. And nothing can stand against.

These mass of idiots then will start coming to take your bitcoin in any way is possible. But they don’t know you are prepared. And will get nothing or just some crumbles.

That will create a huge wave of interest in Bitcoin. Will be almost chaos, mostly created by these idiots. But who did his homework and learn how to deal with bitcoin will not be affected.

Mass adoption means that humanity reached another level of conscience, knowledge, society based on mutual respect and respecting the Natural Law.

Yes, some countries will still keep a small government, with very limited role, but many will get rid of it totally. Their society will be based on strong local communities where Bitcoin will be their strong power.

Then come the PEACE and PROSPERITY.

CONCLUSION

Yes, all this sounds very idealistic. Call me lunatic, out of reality or whatever you want. I don’t give a damn shit. I know what am I talking about. I don’t need you to believe me, I only want you to think about what I just said and study.

But you will remember my words. Soon. Because we will see extreme changes in our world. For some will be bad, for some will be good. All depends on which side you will be and how prepared you will be.

Bitcoin mass adoption will come from YOU, each individual adopting for himself. But only if you reach that level of individual sovereignty.

And only then Bitcoin will save the world, because its power stand in each sovereign individual.

Bitcoin will NOT save the world… YOU the sovereign individual will save the world, using Bitcoin.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

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Updated version on my Github page

This guide is dedicated for all those new users, that want to start learning about (LN) Lightning Network nodes and choose the right type of method for his own necessity.

Inside this guide you will find many links to many other specific guides. Please don’t ignore them. This guide is a guidance between all of them, to help you choose your best path through Lightning Network.

There’s a MISCONCEPTION around the new bitcoiners that you MUST run a dedicated public routing node in order to be able to do some LN payments.

These will be the questions we will try to answer in this guide:

• Why do you want to run a LN node?

• What type of hardware you will use?

• What type of software you could use?

• What type of node do you want to run (public or private)?

• To which node peers you should connect?

• How you will manage the channels liquidity?

WHY do you want to run a LN node?

A. You are a simple LN user that just want to pay with sats your shopping

• you will need more outbound liquidity because you will send out more

• but also some inbound in case you need to receive from friends or others.

• good peers to connect so your txs will go through easily and cheaper

• you don't need to use too much funds in your LN node, enough to cover your spending

• you do not need a public routing node just for that!

B. You are a merchant or freelancer or service provider selling online or physical products/services using LN

• you will need more inbound liquidity, that means other peers or even your own customers to open channels towards your node

• publish your node ID to your customers and encourage them to connect to your node and pay you directly, even without fees

• empty periodically your filled channels so you will have again "space" for more income payments. There are many ways to do this.

• you will need good, big channels to be able to receive as many payments you can

• you don't need to put too many funds from your side, you are the receiver not the spender

C. You are just a node operator, you are more interested in routing txs through LN

• you do not make too many payments using your node (bad, really bad)

• you will need both inbound and outbound liquidity. And a lot, so be prepared with large chunk of funds to put into your LN channels. So if you want to be a routing node with 20k sats or 1M sats... FORGET IT! Go back to sleep.

• you will need balanced channels, so you better join into Rings of Fire

• you will need to know how to do fees channels management, so start learning

• you will need to have a strong hardware and always online node. This is not a joke!

• you can slowly enter into Lightning Pool and "rent"/auction your node liquidity. But you will need a strong node and lot of liquidity to really see some "income".

D. You are testing and learning, or a developer using a node as a base

• you need just some few inbound and outbound channels to play with.

• you do not need too much funds in it.

• is better to inform your peers that you are a temporary peer for them, your node is just a testing ground, so they will not expect you to be online or forever peer.

• you could have public and private channels, testing around.

E. You want to be "Uncle Jim Bank" for your family and friends

• you will offer BTC/LN banking services for your family and friends. That means a lot of responsibility and trust. This is not a joke, your are a real bank now.

• you will need some liquidity in both ways (in/out) to cover your "customers" needs. Remember: your node liquidity is their "water in the pipes" not their funds. So keep your pipes always filled with water.

• you can offer many "services" that you can achieve using LNDHUB, read more:

  • Umbrel + LNDHUB + Bluewallet / Zeus

  • Umbrel + LNBits lndhub + Bluewallet / Zeus

  • LNbits Banks

  • Private LN banks

• you will need to educate your customers about how to use these services, so start making your own simple web guides for them

• you want to offer LSP services for private nodes

F. "I want to earn money with my node, I want gainz, I want a certain % to give me every month", "I want to mine bitcoins with my node", "I want passive income"...

• FORGET ABOUT IT!

• This is wrong mentality, this is lazy communist mentality, get money for doing nothing. To earn money you and your node need work hard.

• A BTC/LN node is not a shit DeFi shitcoin airdrop, it's a serious thing. If you came from that "dark side" there's "no soup for you".

• Stop thinking like that and review the previous 5 points

What type of hardware you will use?

OK so after you decide which type of node you want to run, choose the hardware for it.

Keep in mind some important aspects:

• If you want to run a public routing LN node, choose a good hardware, reliable. Here I wrote a dedicated guide about BTC/LN node hardware. Choose accordingly for the type of use will have that node.

• If you want to run a private LN node, is enough just a good mobile device. Here I wrote 2 guides about using private LN nodes on mobile devices:

  • What mobile devices bitcoiners should use

  • Run a private lightning node

What type of software you could use?

Yes, many noobs just go for the easiest path, jumping into Umbrel, myNode, Citadel, Embassy etc but don’t know that later will realize that is more than just that. Yes, those are good to start learning, easy to install, but later the user will discover will want more than that and will need to migrate or start over with a new software node.

So here in this guide I listed all types of software that you can run a desktop node.

So before choosing one, think twice what are you going to do and analyze each detail.

If you just want to run a private LN node on your mobile, here is a detailed guide about all LN apps comparing them by type and features.

What type of node do you want to run (public or private)?

Many new user don’t even know the existence of these terms: public or private node.

A public LN node means:

• your channels are announced publicly on the LN graph and can be visible with all their details into any Lightning Node Explorer (mempool, amboss, 1ML etc).

• your node ID and name, IP, Tor URL are visible and can be consulted on any LN Explorer.

• your LN channels COULD DO ROUTING of others txs, that means even that if you do not do any payment for yourself, your node will still move funds, forwarding the payments coming through your node, so some channels will drain the liquidity and some other will get filled. So you will need to find the methods to keep a balance of them. As I explained in more details here.

• you will have to do intensive liquidity management for your channels if you really want your node to do routing.

• you have to keep your node 365/24/7 online (or as much is possible) so your node could have good reliability, availability and centrality and increase its ranking.

• if you want to run a public node for routing but still want to keep a certain level of privacy, you could use a Tor node (is quite bad for routing) and put it behind a VPS clearnet server, using TunnelSats.com or use multiple methods of decoy, as I explained in this guide.

• a public node could still have private channels (unannounced), but these will NOT DO ROUTING at all. If you have a good public routing node, you can still offer private channels for mobile users, in this way you are offering your public liquidity for them. As I explained in this dedicated guide.

A private LN node means:

• your channels are ONLY unannounced (private) on the LN graph and are NOT VISIBLE on any public LN explorer. These channels use route hints in order to be able to make the payments. The route hints are provided by the public nodes to which are connected.

• your LN node is NOT VISIBLE or can be consulted on any LN explorer.

• you can make and receive payments but you will NOT BE ABLE to do routing. Routing means forwarding other nodes payments through your node.

• you do not need to do any rebalancing or channels liquidity, only in cases you need to receive or send more from a specific channel.

• you do not need to keep your private LN node online all the time. But at least every 2-3 days, open it, let it sync and even make some payments, even that are small. Have some activity, otherwise your peers could interpret it that is a dead zombie node and will force close the channel with you.

• Here you can find a dedicated guide about private lightning nodes.

To which node peers you should connect?

This is quite complex question and each one should do his own analysis based on the usage of his node.

I start building a personal list of nodes, selected manually, after monitoring them for several days. I am not saying that these nodes are the best, but I like to keep track of nodes that I would like to connect with.

I will update it periodically, based on personal and manual criteria, observing their activity on Amboss.space LN explorer and other tools. My criteria is not based on BOS scores and other stuff like that. Is more about what is their L2 of connections, what are their fees, how often they open/close channels, time keeping their node online. Think more about how will be YOUR txs routed through these nodes and later deal with having a routing node.

Also is not really necessary to connect to all from this list. But some of them are good to have them as your peers.

Another important aspect for me to choose peers is: avoid those nodes that they use exorbitant fees, just to rip off other users in fees. I don't give a shit about what others are trying to say that is race of gaining capital on LN, but for me LN is more a way to transact cheap and fast and not to "earn sats" from routing. So if a node with high exorbitant base fees and/or ppm will connect to my node, I will disable the channel or simply close it.

First of all this is a good start to connect to one of these merchant nodes from this Amboss Community of Merchants Nodes. They need inbound liquidity, so if you have a new node, you help them, they help you.

Also here is a huge list of 0 base fee nodes, curated by René Pickhardt.

Consider also looking to the Zero Base Fee Community on Amboss and all other Amboss Communities.

The list order is random, no preferences.

WATCHED NODES by category:

LSP nodes (Liquidty Service Providers)

These are very important sources, because are well connected, their centrality is good and are dedicated to have a strong reliability and large liquidity. Not all are using low fees, but in general yes., because they think in large volume of txs.

These nodes need liquidity on both sides of the channel, so is good that you watch them and keep that balance when is neeed. Adjust the fees and min/max HTLC accordingly or even make a circular balance between other of your channels.

⚡ IBEX - dynamic fees | 3M min chan | note 6/10 | LATAM exchange LSP

⚡ Voltage Flow - 1/500 policy | 1M min chan | note 8/10 | good liquidity

⚡ CoinGate - 1/1 policy | 1M min chan | note 8/10 | huge node

⚡ LNBig - low dynamic | no min chan | note 8/10 | various liquidity nodes

⚡ LN2Me - 1/dynamic | 1M min chan | note 8/10 | offers inbound liquidity

⚡ BitcoinVN - 1/dynamic | 6M min chan | note 8/10 | Vietnam exchange / LSP

⚡ 1sats.com - 0/0 policy | 5M min chan | note 8/10 | offers inbound LSP

Exchanges / swaps nodes

People start using more exchanges that offer withdrawals over LN. And they need liquidity and you can be a bridge between exchanges and users. Your bank customers also want to buy more sats, using your bank channels.

These nodes need more balance on their side. So you will need to push more the sats on their side, so they can have more liquidity for users withdrawals. These are good pair to circular rebalance with the merchant channels.

⚡ Boltz - 1/dynamic ppm | 1M min chan | note 8/10 | swap node

⚡ ZigZag - 1/1 policy | no min chan | note 7/10 | swap node

⚡ FixedFloat - 1/1 policy | 10M min chan | note 7/10 | swap node

⚡ Deezy - 0/dynamic | 400k min| note 8/10 | swap node

⚡ River - 0/dynamic | 10M min | note 8/10 | big exchange node

⚡ CoinOS - 1/1 policy | no min chan | note 6/10 | swap node

⚡ Kraken - 0/dynamic | 1M min chan | note 7/10 | exchange node

⚡ NiceHash - 1/dynamic | 500k min chan | note 7/10 | exchange node

⚡ Bitfinex - 1/1 policy | 2M min chan | note 7/10 | various nodes

⚡ Biscoint.io - 0/0 policy | no min chan | note 7/10 | Brazilian exchange

⚡ SouthxChange - 0/dynamic | no min chan | note 7/10 | exchange node

⚡ Kollider - 1/dynamic | 2M min chan | note 7/10 | derivative trading exchange

Wallet provider nodes

If you want to have direct fast routes and interoperability between many mobile users, you should be well connected with these nodes. This will offer to you and your “bank customers” a fast and reliable route to transact with other users over the Lightning Network.

These nodes need liquidity on both sides, or watch the behavior of your own users, maybe you have more saviors than spenders. The idea is to not clog them, remaining without liquidity on the side is needed.

⚡ Blixt - 1/dynamic ppm | no min chan | note 8/10 | LSP provider, LN wallet

⚡ Olympus - dynamic | 1M chan size | note 9/10 | LSP provider, LN wallet

⚡ WoS - 0/dynamic | no min chan | note 7/10 | large coverage of users

⚡ Acinq - 1/dynamic | no min chan | note 7/10 | Phoenix wallet provider

⚡ Breez - 0/dynamic | 3M min chan | note 7/10 | Breez wallet provider

⚡ Alby - 1/1 policy | 4M min chan | note 7/10 | Alby browser wallet, various nodes

⚡ Zap / Strike - they have many nodes, good as peer for vast network connected

⚡ Zebedee Nodes - Gaming wallet nodes, they need liquidity / you need connections

Merchants / Services providers nodes

This is also an important source, to offer to your bank customers direct channels with those merchants they use more. So if you already know which merchants they want to use, open channels with those. Not just that you offer liquidity for your own bank users, but also for external LN users that are paying to those merchants. Check on BTCMap those merchants near by and ask them if they need liquidity. Then open a channel with their node.

These nodes need more balance on your side of the channel. Why? Because you will have more users paying towards them. So they are a good pair to circular rebalance the channels from exchanges.

⚡ Fold - 1/dynamic ppm | no min chan | note 7/10 | satsback, card provider

⚡ LNMarkets - good peer, lots of txs, provide trading on LN

⚡ Moon - 1/1 policy | no min chan | note 7/10 | card provider, good connections

⚡ OSHI - 0/dynamic fees | note 6/10 | too many disabled ch | oshi.app

⚡ Merchants Community - various merchant nodes in Amboss Community

Rings of Fire, Liquidity swaps, NodeRunners Communities

This is a special category, is optional. It is good to start with, when you do not have so many channels and you want your node to became more “visible” in the network. Don’t use it excessively because not all nodes in there are good for your needs. Many of them just want “passive income” and trying to suck sats from your node fees.

These nodes will always offers you already balanced channels, using the ring tools. That’s a good thing to start, you will have liquidity on both sides. Also if you are new into running a node, the RoF community is very helpful and will give you the best advice to configure your node.

Telegram groups: Rings of Fire, Satoshi Radio, Plebnet or LightningNetwork.Plus - amazing web to join to rings with other plebs.

See the section about LN nodes tools in this awesome list with things you can do on LN and use them to tune-up your node.

Other good nodes

This is the category of nodes that you can expand when your node is already well connected and you want to reach the outer limits of the LN Galaxy. Are nodes that you want to help, nodes that are from other “LN Banks” and you want to be connected and are not from any of previous categories.

But be aware, select them with caution and watch them during the initial period. If are not well worth it, close them. Nodes that are not moving any sats during a certain period are totally useless.

⚡ RecklessApotheosis - 0/dynamic ppm | no min chan | note 8/10 | plebnet node

⚡ BlackBox - 0.4/dynamic fees | 5M min ch| note 8/10 | both sides mover, good peer

⚡ Hades - 0/dynamic ppm | 5M min ch | note 8/10 | interesting node, low fees

⚡ Satstacker - 0/1 policy | 1M min chan | note 8/10 | well connected, collaborative

⚡ South Korea - 0/dynamic ppm | no min chan | note 7/10 | plebnet node

⚡ Rust-eze - 0/dynamic | 1M min chan | note 7/10 | promising pleb node

For mobile private LN nodes, here is a community list of good nodes, that accept private channels.

How you will manage the channels liquidity?

A - For a public routing node.

Before we begin, bookmark this excellent special guide “Configuration of a routing node” - By LND team. This is a MUST read and use guide.

A good 3-5-10-20M sats channel (or even bigger) with one of these will be good to have for your new node. Do not open a channel for less than 3M sats. Will be useless. Channels smaller than 3M sats will be mostly ignored for routing.

Also the cost of opening and closing small channels is too high to run them. When you open a channel are many “reserves” and hidden costs that noobs usually don’t know or ignore them but then later they are crying “why my 20k sats channel balance is going down"?”. You have the anchor channel reserve, you have the channel reserve, you have the commitment fees that can vary in time and affecting your channel available sats, you have the HTLC min/max that your peers can set.

So in order to avoid all this trouble, just open min 3M sats channel and forget.

Choose wisely a peer and also check on LN Node Insight simulating a channel with each of them and see what advantages will bring to your node.

Once you open the channel, depending on your outbound/inbound liquidity available, loop-out something like 30-40-50 % of that liquidity to balance a bit the newly created channel. That will help to get the grip. You can use a temporary external LN wallet or just swap into onchain. Those loop out funds will help you later to open more channels.

To loop in / out sats, you can use:

• Deezy.io - simple fast, LSP, swaps LN - onchain

• CoinOS.io - web wallet, onchain, LN, swaps, custodial or non-custodial

• Boltz.exchange - simple, fast, swaps from LN to onchain

• ZigZag.io - simple fast, swaps from LN to onchain (be aware, sometimes they run out fast of liquidity)

• FixedFloat - simple fast, swaps from LN to onchain

• Integrated swaps into RTL and Thunderhub (are using Loop and Boltz)

• RoboSats - fiat <--> LN and LN <-->onchain swaps, totaly private, Tor only

• DiamondHands - run by a Japan node runners community

• Submarine Swaps - run by Alex Bossworth (LND dev)

• myLOOP Telegram bot - for small amounts is good

• iPayBlue - new release, interesting swap service

Here I wrote a dedicated guide about LN submarine swaps.

Here is a detailed guide about submarine swaps fees.

For a public routing node this is the most important chart report: YOUR TOTAL liquidity report (screenshot from Thunderhub node management web app)

As you can see, it is not so important to keep a perfectly balance on each channel, but on your total inbound and outbound liquidity. A disruption into this balance, let’s say you have 60% outbound and 40% inbound total liquidity, could affect your routing directly, will have less payments routed. Why? Because if you do not have enough “space” to receive and forward a payment, your node will reject the route.

You can adjust this lack of liquidity with:

• make swap in or out into a channel that is drained or too much filled

• using Lightning Terminal Loop

• adjust the fees for specific channels to push the liquidity in the side where is needed most

• adjust the min or max HTLC amount (valve system)

• optimize your node centrality - very good guide

Find out more about using all different strategies in this guide about node fees.

Here also you can find more node management tools, automated scripting, balancing.

General recommendations for public routing nodes:

• try to keep as much is possible a channel open. But if the channel is quite small and you see you have a good amount of forwarding through it, close it and open a bigger one.

• keep your node as much reliable is possible. Your node reputation depend on that.

• do not run a Tor only node if you want to do routing. Routing means PUBLIC. Tor only nodes will not be reliable and reachable 100% and that will affect not only you but everybody else in the network.

• If you want privacy before routing, DO NOT RUN A PUBLIC NODE!

B - For private LN nodes

In this category is quite simple and all depends of your usage of these private LN nodes.

Basically you need to find some good public nodes to which to connect:

• to provide you lowest fees possible

• accept to open smaller channels

• accept to open private channels and keep them open as long you have activity

• provide good and fast payment routes

Even with these, try to avoid opening smaller channels, like 20-50-100k sats. A regular 1-5M sats channel will be ok, enough to provide you a good amount of payments.

Also have prepared 2-3-4 channels on your mobile private node. Why not just 1? Because you never know when your peer is offline, or do not have good routes and also with at least 3 channels you can use the MPP (multi-part payment), splicing your payment amount in smaller parts and send through multiple routes. This aspect will not just increase your privacy but also is a more efficient way to use your channels and the network.

For Blixt LN node I wrote multiple use case scenarios and channels management here.

For OBW, Breez, Electrum LN node I wrote some scenarios for liquidity here.

For Zeus, recently it was introduced the embedded LND node so users can run the Zeus node in their mobile devices.

• Here I wrote a dedicated guide for Zeus LN node

• Read more documentation how to use their integrated LSP and node here.

For Phoenix I would suggest the following scenario:

Phoenix is opening a channel slightly bigger than what are you depositing, I could say with a 10% more. And for each channel opening is charging a 3000 fee. If you start spending from that channel, do not spend it all, because they will close it. If you leave some sats in the channel and make another deposit from another LN wallet, but no more than the size of the channel, the sats will fit into that already open channel and will not be opening a new one. So no more 3000 sats fee.

If you deposit from an onchain address, then it will open a new channel even if you already have an almost empty channel.

I suggest to make first time a bigger deposit, and like that opening a bigger channel. Spend from that channel slowly until you reach the balance of 1% of it. Then refill. until 99%. And so on. In that way you keep that channel open and pay less fees.

Also keep in mind that after you open a bigger channel and do not want to open more channels, by mistake, disable the option “automatic on-the-fly channel creation” from Settings - Payment options and fees. Activate that option only when you want to open new channels. Remember, if you do not have enough “space” to receive, the payment will be failed, with that option disabled.

If you run your own desktop node at home, you could also use:

• LNBits lndhub

• BoltCard lndhub

• Lightning Terminal LN accounts

• BTCPay LN bank plugin

• Hosted channels with Poncho

So you practically can be your own LSP for smaller amounts of LN accounts from your own node, without revealing your hole liquidity, node info and access. You can use for these accounts Zeus or Bluewallet or BoltCard mobile apps and even Alby as browser extension.

CONCLUSION

As you can see there are many ways to use Lightning Network, not just “Run a Umbrel node”, and the users should choose wisely the path they want to follow, that could serve better their own needs and use cases.

I hope this guide make the path more clear for you, the new LN user trying to understand all these terms about routing, nodes, liquidity and don’t know from where to start.

I know that maybe you expected to see in this guide more technical explanations, charts, graphs etc but that is not the goal of this guide. The goal is for you to start using your brain, read all the links inserted (that will lead you to many other detailed guides), expand your knowledge. Some aspects are not even mentioned here, not to hide from you or distract you, but to make you read more those links inserted.

Is not a simple journey, I know, because I was in the same situation like you, struggling to understand all these aspects. But I was persistent in reading, testing, learning multiple methods, listening a lot of video demos, talking with experts, devs.

Now I just want to give you back my accumulated knowledge, to help you find the right information for each use case. Sometimes many users are rambling around trying complicated things and methods, without knowing that also exist simple solutions, that sometimes are not so well presented in the community of doesn’t have a big marketing budget to be shilled all around.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇫🇷 Français | 🇩🇪 Deutsch | 🇳🇱 Dutch | 🇮🇹 Italiano | 🇭🇷 Hrvatski

Updated on my Github page

Recently LNbits team worked so hard to prepare a surprise solution for all bitcoiners: a LNbits on a SaaS, instant access to a LNbits instance on a hosted server, but with full control of the whole Lnbits. Announcement here.

This LNbits SaaS will simplify the whole process of installing and managing a LNbits instance, that any non-tech user could do it in max 10 min, even without a LN node as a funding source.

As you already know, reading my previous guides, LNbits is an incredible LN software solution for many use cases. This time, I will propose a different scenario using LNbits and focused on those that want a LNBits instance for a certain time or purpose. We are going to analyse the case of:

• A school – that want to use LNbits for internal organization use, specific projects, learning platform

• Festival events – a festival organizer that want to offer to the participants an internal accounting system to sell various stuff inside the event (merchandising, drinks, services, fun stun pictures, instant VIP access etc)

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, many schools have an internal accounting system but is based on a fiat currency and also could not be controlled by parents, on how their children can spend their money.

Is not about being authoritarian, but about being efficient and focus the children to use their money on things that are useful and not on being able to spend on drugs, crime and external school activities. In the same time we can teach the kids about Bitcoin and LN, real life use cases and how they can manage their own wallets / finances.

Another use case, are the festivals, events, conferences, closed organizations that want to offer specific services and products to their participants/employees, during the event or inside the organization, like a bonus or reward system to be spend also internally.

There are so many applications and use cases where LNbits could be used, so please use your imagination and desire to use Bitcoin and LN and you will see how easy and fast you could setup a solution for many specific use cases. So let’s analyse these two use cases.

LNBITS SaaS – WHAT DOES IT MEANS?

SaaS – Software as a Service

LNbits SaaS – LNBits team is running a server that could spin up instantly a new LNbits instance for you, already configured with clearnet https access, hosted on a LNbits server.

Yes, the instance is custodial, but you are in full control of the instance and its funds. You could even export the database backup, if you want later to import it into another instance, that could be self hosted. SaaS and self hosted are fully compatible, using the same software code.

Think about is like a hosted Wordpress on a paid server. When you pay, you pay for hosting space, for domain name, core software already installed and no need to handle all the hassle with OS, security, backup, reliability.

The process is simple and takes just few minutes to be ready. You login to

https://saas.lnbits.com

click on “LAUNCH” – new instance. It will pop-up a screen where you can pay a LNURL invoice, and the amount of sats you pay depends on how much time you want that LNbits instance active.

After paying the LN invoice, you will see the spinning wheels for few minutes and your LNbits instance will be ready. First login is with the super admin user. You can save the bookmark if you want, but also could be accessed later from the same login SaaS page.

Yes, for the time being, we still have to bookmark users access to LNbits page, until the new adminUI will be ready.

It is recommended to use the “User manager” extension, with the super admin user, where you create the future normal users / wallets. Also is better to disable this extension for normal users, so they could not create random additional users, that you could not “see” them in your super admin UI and cannot be managed.

So go to “Manage Server” – Server and add the “user manager” extension in the “Admin extensions”. That will disable it from normal users UI (not visible).

LNbits funding sources

I will mention briefly about the funding sources for LNbits. LNbits SaaS support all the funding sources as any normal LNbits instance and these are:

1. FakeWallet – default source, which is using only as an internal source of funds and is credited automatically with 1M sats. From this source you can allocate sats to each wallet you want using the adminUI.

This is a very good option in case you want to use LNbits only in an internal / closed environment, not in public use and you want that users will “buy” those “sats credits” first and could not use them outside the event / organization.

This doesn’t mean you create a shitcoin or token, you simply create an internal use of sats, for specific use case.

2. LSP (Liquidity Service Provider) – Could be many other sources from custodial services like LNPay, OpenNode, Alby, LNTipBot and many others that can provide an API to connect with the funding source.

These are practically LN nodes that can offer you an account and you can use it with their backend LN node liquidity, without bothering to manage the LN channels and stuff like that. Yes, are custodial, but you can easily withdraw anytime the funds, many are not KYC and are trusted services that will not put in danger their reputation for a meaningless rug pull.

These are good in case you can’t run your own node, or you don’t want to use your own node, but you still want to use that LNbits instance for both types of payments (internal and external).

3. Your own LN node – these are straight forward, connecting to your own node, no matter where is located and supports all major LN implementations (LND, CLN, Éclair) and Cliché plugin for Hosted Channels.

To configure each of funding sources is very easy, just go to LNbits “manage server” section and in funding tab you will find all these options. Fill the correct details, save the settings and wait for the LNbits SaaS to restart (it will take few moments). And done, now you can start using it with your desired funding source. Also it can be changed any time with a backup one and all the users accounts will not be affected.

A.   LNBITS USED IN SCHOOL

This is a special and wonderful use case! I would love to see it used in practice in many schools, where pupils could learn to build solutions and applications based on BTC/LN and LNbits as core platform.

This is a special category, because it can be used only with the "FakeWallet" as funding source. That means the users could NOT use their School LNbits accounts outside of the school. For that they would need special approval and conversion from their teachers / managers / parents.

In this way, if the parents want to load up their "school LNbits account" with some pocket money, they will be with peace of mind that the funds will not be used on external non desired "items" (alchoolic drinks, drugs, illegal stuff etc).

There's also the aspect that using a real money funding source, could have more implications and specific setups, involving LN node management and real capital in the game. With a "fakeWallet" is not really necessary and is ready straight away. Also using the LNbits SaaS option is not necessary to build around a specific domain name. If is necessary it can be built a self hosted LNbits instance, as a school project, to learn how install and manage a full LNbits session and all things that imply it.

Yes, indeed, it can be used also a parallel LNBits instance with a real funding source, in case is needed a conversion of those "internal sats" into "real life sats".

In the same time could be a powerful tool for internal use in a school, with many applications that could incentive pupils in a more commercial free market activity. In this way they will learn how to appreciate and manage money, for useful things, learn how to save money and use them only when are really necessary, create a marketplace environment etc. Applications like:

• Using mobile apps like Zeus or Bluewallet with a LNbits account or using the NFC cards, loaded up by each one of users or managers. Extensions used: lndhub, boltcards, LNURL-p, LNURL-w.

• Payment platform and accounting for internal meals / lunch services. Extensions used: LNDHUB, LNURL-p, LNURL-w, Offline shop, TPoS.

• Snacks and drinks vending machines. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, LNURL-w, LNURL-device, Bitcoin Switch. See more details and examples here.

• Bitcoin switch machines (activate stuff, trigger actions, games). Extensions used: LNDHUB, LNURL-p, Bitcoin Switch. See more details and examples here.

• Rewards sats system or even pay to “not be grounded” or “pay for own mistakes”. Teachers could reward good pupils for good behavior or special treatment with some sats, directly to their LNBits account. This could be an incentive for doing good things. But also pupils could use a dedicated amount of their sats to skip "grounded hours" or "grounded tasks". Of course this could be quite expensive, but possible. Funds collected from these "punishments" could be used as crowdfunding for school projects, going to a specific LNbits wallet.. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p.

• Internal NOSTR marketplace, pupils could buy/sell stuff in an open free market, including teachers could participate. This could be ad-hoc marketplace (like a garage sale) or an online shop, using the LNbits Market extension. Each pupil could run their own stale or could be a common one, by classroom or category of stuff. Also each seller could decide if they want to split the funds for other destinations (if they want to sell old stuff to collect money for a project etc) and could use the Split extension. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, split, nostr-market

• Pay to rent/use conference rooms or renting school equipment, special resources access for special events. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, Events tickets.

• Pay for extra curriculum activities / courses / extra support. If pupils need some extra help with specific curriculums or extra activities, they could find on school webpage the support tickets page or pay to join for extra activities, excursions etc. Teachers or any other pupil could "sell" these extra services to those in need. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, support tickets, SatsPayServer.

• Streamer copilot for internal school podcast or live events. This could be a really cool application, if the school organize some kind of "school live podcast". Pupils and teachers could participate with tipping sats on the live event, that also could be used a crowdfunding option. It can also be used for "school radio station", together with DJ Livestream or Spotify Jukebox. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, streamer copilot, split, DJ Livestream, Spotify Jukebox.

• School / class TipJar for crowdfunding projects. Could be general school TipJar or classroom or ad-hoc crowdfunding project. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, TipJar.

As you can see there are many use cases and I am sure there are more, depending on each school specific profile or habits. But LNbits could cover with many extensions, many use cases or even could be a project for IT class, to develop new LNbits extensions, based on their needs. LNbits support the independent development of new extensions, here you can see more details and examples.

B.   LNBITS USED FOR AN EVENT / FESTIVAL/ CONFERENCE

If you want to use LNBits for an event or a music festival, a conference, you will have a surprise of how many options you have, all to serve the necessities of an internal accounting system, with a form of internal money (fake-sats) or even with real money (BTC/sats).

In case you want to use a separate system for selling extra stuff during the event, you can spin up a SaaS LNbits instance in just 5 min, using its default "FakeWallet" as funding source.

After the event, if users still didn't used all their Event "FakeSats", could exchange them back for real sats or give them away to organizers. The LNbits accounts will be open only during that event, could not be re-used on a future event.

Why is good to use an internal "fakeWallet" for such an event?

• You don't need to depend on a LN node liquidity and you cannot know exactly how much volume of liquidity you would need. Also that imply to have such LN capital to open channels to be able to handle all the external traffic in and out.

• You can avoid stuck payments using the real LN liquidity and nodes. People would use any kind of wallets, nodes, access, system and sometimes could really have bad path finding, not enough liquidity, noob users that don't know how to handle these situations. And in a such big volume of transactions you want that all to go smooth and not create confusion and frustrations.

• You can control all the transactions in real time. Communication could be done with internal WiFi access for participants only, no need for extra meassures of privacy, Tor, VPN etc. All LNbits traffic is internal and you can also have at the end a good statistic of payments use, accounting for all the stuff was sold.

• You can create specific split payments in case you sell consignia items from other providers and directly split the funding.

• You can have a base standard event ticket price, where the user could participate in specific standard activities and only if they want to hace access to other activities / rooms would buy the entrance with those "internal credits". There are cases that maybe user want to participate only to specific activities so would not be forced to pay the whole price for all. Or maybe would decide to participate to extra activities. In this way, the tickets to the event will be more affordable to a large number of people and they will pay only for those services they really want to have them.

With a real LN funding source all these will be quite a challenge to be done. Is not impossible, but hard to achieve and mostly will end up with many frustrated users.

Is much easier that at the end of the event all the "credits" will be converted into real sats and done, everybody is happy.

Let's see some use cases for LNbits during an event:

• User buy the usual event ticket and as extra features, could buy "credits" to be used internally. 1 Sat = 1 fakeSat (credit). Once they buy some credits, will have automatically a personal LNbits account, that can be accessed using the LNDHUB extension, imported into their own mobile apps like Zeus or Bluewallet, simply using the LNBits bookmark on their phone or using a LNURL NFC card preloaded with the credits from their own account. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, LNURL-w, BoltCard.

• "Sell" vouchers for internal use, in exchange for real sats, for specific amounts. Or you can even print a bunch of LNURL-w vouchers and give them away as a promotion during the event. These vouchers would have those "FakeSats" to be used internally. See the specifications for LNURL-w extension, where you can find also a simple way to print in bulk many QR code vouchers at once. Users could withdraw these "credits" into their personal "event LNbits account" provided when they bought the entrance.

• Drinks and food inside the event. Could be the famous Candle BeerTaps or Vending machines. Extensions used: lndhub, LNURL-p, BoltCard, Bitcoin Switch, LNURL-devices, LNURL TPoS, Offline Shop.

• Pay to enter on VIP reunions / rooms / workshops / meetups

• Pay to take fun / press pictures (dedicated space) with invitees or participate in VIP parties.

• Buy various merchandising. Here can be used the Split extension in case are sold consignia items.

• Pay for transportation to/from event to their hotel or home, event organizers will have dedicated cars for this service, so users would not depend on other external car services availability.

• Event livestream broadcast. Could be used for both ways: internal and external. For internal use, on the stage screen, can be added the Streamer Copilot, with an internal QR code + specific trigerred animated action on the screen, for fun or appreciation of the speaker. It could be also linked to a Bitcoin Switch and create a a real life action: smoke, baloons flying, slaping the speaker or any other funny switch. The external viewers, could also pay to see live the event and also interact with the streamer copilot, but for these will be necessary to have a separate LNbits instance, with real funding source, so they can pay directly from their own real LN wallets. You can't have a single LNbits instance to work with two funding sources in the same time (not yet).

And many other use cases, LNBits could provide multiple functionalities with all those 30+ extensions.

CONCLUSION

I hope this mini guide will just open your mind and offer you inspiration for your events or conferences, or helping your kids in schools to learn more how to use Bitcoin and LN. Is just a simple example of how to use LNbits in real life.

We are just starting to build a new future and we have these wonderful software solutions, made with a lot of passion by amazing BTC/LN developers.

You can also participate to this open source software, with any contribution you can: building new extensions, making guides, write documentation, find bugs or issues and help developers to fix them, building additional UI and API linked to LNbits core, creating various ways to use LNbits in real life and make a wonderful experience in using Bitcoin and LN.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇫🇷 Français | 🇩🇪 Deutsch | 🇳🇱 Dutch | 🇮🇹 Italiano | 🇭🇷 Hrvatski

This article was posted and registered OP_RETURN at block height #785362

Updated on my Github page

This is a great achievement for NOSTR and LNbits, a revolutionary protocol to be able to trade in a total decentralized way, announced by Ben Arc here.

If you are new to this and don't know what is NOSTR, start reading here:

• nostr.com

• nostr.how

If you are new to LNbits, never use it, never heard of it, start reading here:

• Getting started with LNbits

• LNbits Wiki Documentation

• More guides and tutorials about LNbits

The original protocol was Diagon-Alley, that later became NOSTR-Market (NIP-15).

Diagon Alley is a decentralized market-stall protocol, that shifts emphasis from the front-end market to the merchants stall. If a front-end market (indexer) gets taken down, merchants just point their stalls elsewhere. Game-theoretically the winner of Diagon Alley is the most forthright, although suggestions on limiting bad behavior are very welcome.

Indexers

Indexer is a simple front-end server and GUI that routes product, payment and shipping information between merchant and buyer. Each merchant has products in a stall. The stall chooses what products to list with the indexer. An indexer has one endpoint.

Stalls

A stall has a keypair it uses to register itself to indexes and sign invoices. That keypair isn't related to any Lightning Network keypair, it's independent.

A stall can choose to list some/all products with an indexer. A stall is a small server that has three endpoints.

But all that was based on http protocol, so still was depending on domain/DNS and traffic over http.

Now, NOSTR-market is build over NOSTR protocol, where all the traffic is over wss relays. HTTP access it can be optional in case the merchant want to publish a public web-shop.

But practically anybody can run a shop stall in a local instance of LNbits (on 127.0.0.1) and broadcast as notes all the items from its stall to the relays is connected.

Same as for customers, could just run a local NOSTR-client and a NOSTR-market and connect to any merchant pubkey over wss relays. Then shop freely, decentralized, anonymously with no http traffic whatsoever, using for payments the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Let's get started!

AS A MERCHANT

Let's consider you already have installed LNbits (see the links above about LNbits). Will not enter into those details now, will make this guide too long.

A short checklist before starting with NOSTR-market:

• Get familiarized how NOSTR works and what really is. Many think that is just a Twitter replacement, but they're wrong, is much more than that. The NOSTR protocol offers many other functionalities for a more decentralized world.

• Get familiarized how LNbits works. It's an accounting system on top of a LN node / funding source. Consider it as a "wordpress" for your LN node.

• Test your LNbits instance to be working well, testing the wallets, users etc. Please read and pay attention to all LNbits documentation available on the Wiki page.

• Consider having a good funding source with good liquidity (in and out) for your LN node, connected to good LN routes and offer enough liquidity for the payments you will receive and also for swaping out the sats received. Please read, learn and get familiarized with how LN works. Here is a full list of guides and tutorials.

Step 1 - Install required LNbits extensions

A - Activate the adminUI feature

For an easy management of your LNbits server (funding sources, users, admins, install extensions etc).

To remember:

• This adminUI will create a super-admin user that is ONLY to manage the server and will be displayed only at LNbits startup, in the console log.

• It can be accessed through local URL like http://127.0.0.1/admin?usr=dfdf87.... or domain / DNS if you setup your LNbits in clearnet or over Tor also.

• Save this URL into your browser bookmarks if you like to access it more times.

• DO NOT put this URL into any search engine or post it in public !

• DO NOT use a browser like Google Chrome that also is logged in with a Gmail account. Use a decent browser that respect privacy and also do not save the history/cache (see browser options and disable that option). Every time you close the browser, will eliminate all browsing history. See more here.

Soon LNbits will have a proper login way, but that feature is not ready yet. Have patience.

B - Install User Manager (UM) extension

This is a very useful extension to manage and create users, wallets and levels of access.

See more instructions here.

Login with the Super Admin user, install the UM, then create a user with its wallet too.

Login with that user and save the URL in your bookmarks. This user could be also acting as an admin user (if you give full rights in the "Manage server" section).

Inside this "admin user" you can create several other normal users, same procedure using the UM extension. But only if are needed.

With this "admin user" we are going to create the merchant and stall with the NOSTR-market extension.

C - Install NOSTR-client extension

This is a required extension for NOSTR-market, because your market needs to connect to several NOSTR relays in order to be able to broadcast your stall.

NOSTR-client is an always-on extension that can open multiple connections to nostr relays and act as a multiplexer for other clients: You open a single websocket to nostrclient which then sends the data to multiple relays. The responses from these relays are then sent back to the client.

Add some NOSTR relays into the client. If you can add a proxy relay (one that is connected to many other relays) will be better to limit the sync traffic.

D - Install NOSTR-Market extension

This is the important extension you will use to create and manage your merchant profile, the stalls, products, interact with customers over NOSTR private messages, manage orders etc.

See more instructions here.

Step 2 - Configure your NOSTR-Merchant Stall and products

As a merchant you need to provide a Nostr key pair, or the extension can generate one for you. If you already use NOSTR for posting notes and chat you can use the same keys, to use the already created reputation and verification NIP-05. But is preferable to have a separate one for the shop and just publish into your "public NOSTR profile" the additional shop pubkey.

Once you have a merchant "account", you can view the details on the merchant dropdown, save the keys separately and/or announce your shop pubkey (not private key!) to your followers / customers.

SAVE YOUR PRIVATE KEY into a safe place! In case you need to migrate your LNbits NOSTR market or restore a LNbits instance to another machine, you could use that merchant private key to import your previous stall and items.

To create a stall, you first need to set a Shipping zone. Click on the Zones button and fill in the fields:

• Give your shipping zone a name

• Select to which countries does this Shipping zone applies to (you can set a "Free" zone for digital goods)

• Select the unit of account. If your will list products in USD/EUR, the shipping zone must be in the same currency

• Select the cost to ship

Now you can create the stall. Click on New Stall button and fill the necessary fields.

• Give your stall/shop a name

• An optional description (this can be used by client to search shops)

• Select which wallet to use for this shop

• Select the unit

• select a Shipping Zone (multiple zones can be selected)

Click on the "Plus" button to open the stall details and click "New Product" to create a product:

Fill the necessary fields on the dialog

• The product name

• Give it a description

• Add some categories (this can be used by clients to search for products, so add as many as can describe better your item)

• Supply an URL for your product image (it's recommended that the images are hosted outside of LNbits). You could use PostIMG.cc or any other CDN.

• A price for the product, in the currency selected for the shop (this will be converted to sats when a customer buys)

• The quantity you have in stock, for the product. This will update when orders are made/paid

On the Stall section you can also see (update or delete) the stall details in Stall Info tab

Create, update or delete products in Products tab

Done! Your Merchant Stall is ready to be visited by your customers.

To test locally your stall, open the link of the local Market page, located on the main page of NOSTR-Market, on the right-side panel:

This link will open a new tab like: http:127.0.0.1/nostrmarket/market or https://your-lnbits.domain.com/nostrmarket/market (if you access it in clearnet).

Click on the Market menu and go to Merchants. Then paste your merchant pubkey (see the beginning of this chapter about displaying / saving your pubkey).

Once you add your pubkey, your stall will be displayed and broadcast to the relays.

The Login button is to be used as of customer or as you the owner of the Stall or as with your personal NOSTR profile.

You could test your NOSTR Stall also from any other public NOSTR Market page, like https://legend.lnbits.com/nostrmarket/market for example. You just have to add your pubkey into the “Merchants” section and done. Any of your customers can do the same procedure or from their own local LNbits instance if they have it.

In a Market page you can add multiple merchants and shop from there directly. As you can see in the image above, are 3 different merchants, with their stalls and all accessed from a local LNbits instance, just by adding their pubkeys.

When you get an order, you can see the details by clicking on the "Plus" sign for the order

• Ordered products

• The order ID

• Customer's shipping address

• Customer's public key

• Invoice ID

If applicable, you can set as shipped when shipping is processed.

You also have a Chat Box to chat with customer and all these messages are done over NOSTR protocol, privately and encrypted.

AS A CUSTOMER

LNbits also provides a Nostr Market client app.

You can share with your customers the client URL from the merchant dashboard by clicking on the "Market client" link or or by visiting https://<LNbits instance URL>/nostrmarket/market.

Or they can visit https://legend.lnbits.com/nostrmarket/market for example and just add your Stall pubkey. Or even using the search box and put one of your specific tags.

If they already have a LNbits instance installed, they can even access it from a local URL like http://127.0.0.1/nostrmarket/market and adding the stall pubkey.

HAPPY DECENTRALIZED SHOPPING OVER NOSTR WITH BTC/LN!

Stay tuned!

This article guide could be updated in the next weeks with added more details and features, once are released.

More features of LNbits NOSTR-Market are about to come and also new LNbits features will be released soon, that could make even easier to run a LNbits instance.

If you want to test a funny Tatooine merchant, please visit Watto’s Shop.

Watto’s Shop NOSTR PubKey: dd7d078150a7ea1048a0551d99eef72a68ebde0d5db49f3017c53b745a8805cb

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

🇪🇸 Español | 🇫🇷 Français | 🇩🇪 Deutsch | 🇳🇱 Dutch | 🇮🇹 Italiano | 🇭🇷 Hrvatski

Updated version on my Github page

I was usually asked by some of my readers: “Darth, what mobile device are you using with Bitcoin?”

Nowadays it is hard not to be traced, spied upon and misused in many ways, just by giving up your personal data, by a simple mobile device. I know, it´s not easy to have an online presence without all these crappy things spying on you. But at least we can do small steps towards a cleaner use of online apps from our mobile devices.

Many people today, especially new Bitcoin users, are just buying a random mobile device and use it as it comes, full of bloatware software pre-installed and also what is more important: full of Google spyware apps that do not let you do any step without using a Google account and all your activity monitored through them.

For using Bitcoin with a mobile device it is paramount to reduce as much as you can any bloatware and spyware software from your device. You are exposing yourself to many dangers.

If you still want to use those Google services, at least use a separate device, dedicated for all kind of crap online apps, but not Bitcoin. Do you want / need a maps app? Use a damn GPS device, that is doing only that, not spying on you. Or use your brain.

So, in this guide, I will try to give you some hints, some simple steps you can do.

Step 1 - NO iPhone

If you are using an iPhone (Apple) product… GET RID OF IT!

I am dead serious about this. I know you love your fancy iShit, but that is one of the biggest spy on you. There are many articles, blogs, warnings about Apple products, I don’t have to list them all here, you already know them.

Will post only two examples as warnings:

• Apple will popularize chip implants. Here is how.

• Apple Blocks Bitcoin Wallets: Users Destroy iPhones

• iShit devices takes a picture every 5 seconds

REMINDER:

• Apple can control the access to all your installed apps. Can enable or disable that access in an instant. And you can do shit about that.

• Apple is harassing apps developers with insane restrictions, rules, paperwork, just to be able to publish their bitcoin apps on the Apple Play Store. Someday you will not be able to update your favorite Bitcoin app.

• Not all Bitcoin developers are willing to take all these risks and many are avoiding to build apps for iOS. So you will not have access to all kind of wonderful bitcoin apps, because simply do not exist for iOS.

• Why buying a super expensive mobile device, just for using it for Bitcoin apps and calls? Limit your online usage with a mobile device, of all kind of non-necessary apps. Restrict the use only on apps that you really need: Bitcoin, calls, eventually a secured chat app. Nothing else. Your life will be much better.

Step 2 - Get an Android device

In this step also there are options, depending on each budget, preferences, level of privacy desired etc. Is up to you, but at least you did this step towards a more open OS.

Yes many would say, buy a Pixel (Google) device. It’s fine, but are damn expensive!

Why not just stack more sats? In the end a latest Pixel device can do the same as is doing any other brand, but cheaper.

Some would say, nooo is not enough, go for a more secured device like Librem 5 or PinePhone etc, are many other “super shadowy” devices. But again, you are paying a lot of money for what? Up to you.

My simple advice: buy a decent Android device, no matter the brand and specs, but at least to support Android 11 and to have a decent amount of RAM and local storage (where to install apps, not for your funny pictures and videos). Could be even second hand / refurbished if are in good condition. The idea is to stack more sats.

I will give you an example: a Motorola G9 is a decent device and you can get it for around 100 bucks or even less. Is doing absolutely the same as a Pixel 6 in terms of Bitcoin apps.

Ok let’s say you choose a decent device, a good brand, not just an obscure no-name, at least to be sure you have good hardware and also to support de-googled OS.

Keep in mind: before choosing a specific device / model / brand, check what kind of OS version you can install on it. For this let’s see Step 3.

Step 3 - Which Android OS could you install instead ?

Here is a good chart comparison of main Android OS.

A. Pixel devices

For those that choose to buy a Pixel device, is very simple and a good choice. Is a very good hardware and is supporting powerful OS:

• GrapheneOS - very easy to install, even directly from their website, strong privacy features, nice UI/UX design

• CalyxOS - easy to install, but require some basic knowledge of how to flash Android OS, good privacy features, also come with Aurora Store (clone of Google Play Store) that can be used if you still want more apps.

I personally do not recommend going back to ANY Google apps, not even using Aurora Store. It doesn’t make sense to use a de-googled phone but installing back google apps. Especially those apps that REQUIRE to have installed google services app. You practically going back to the same shit spyware that you are running from.

So KEEP IT SIMPLE.

B. Non-Pixel devices (any other brand, Samsung Motorola, LG etc)

For these ones, GrapheneOS and CalyxOS are not available (yet). Sorry but it is what it is, limitations of hardware and software sometimes are against what we want.

But we still have a nice, simple, clean OS: LineageOS. Available for many brands and models and developers are continuously working to keep it updated and add more features. It´s not as best as Graphene or Calyx but it´s much better than any stock ROM with bloatware that you are buying from a vendor.

And it comes with NO GOOGLE APPS by default. Yes, you can still install various gapps packages (pico, nano, max, full) if you really want it, but again, why bother de-google your phone if you go back to shit ?

Again, consult their wiki knowledge base to see if your device model is supported. Also check on XDA Developers forum if there’s a special version for your device model in particular. You can read there also about other users opinions, issues, how to guides, download versions etc.

Another good source of guides and releases, where you can find more documentation to de-google your device model is on GetDroidTips page (are many other sites).

Step 4 - How to install a de-googled Android OS ?

For Pixel devices is easier, using a web installer or some command lines in terminal. You will find all the documentation needed on the GrapheneOS and CalyxOS webs.

Video tutorials:

• Matt Odell - installing GrapheneOS

• Install GrapheneOS with Web installer

• Install CalyxOS in 10 minutes

For non-Pixel devices is a bit more different. You can find also the documentation on the LineageOS page (inside each device model you will find links to documentation).

The process in general is the same for all devices:

• charge the device 100%

• backup your data, if is necessary

• you will need a PC to connect with (Linux or Windows)

• install device drivers (see in the documentation)

• Go to your device settings and activate “developer options” and “USB debugging”

• copy the LineageOS image rar/zip into device internal storage

• run the ADB tool to connect to your device

• flash the TWRP recovery tool, to be used later with the custom ROM

• flash the LineageOS image (previously copied on local storage) using TWRP

• reboot and DONE, you have now a brand new de-googled device

• install the apps desired using the apk files downloaded into your device.

Step 5 - Managing device apps

OK, now we have a new clean OS, how can install apps if there’s no “app store” from where to choose the apps?

Is quite simple: DIRECTLY FROM GITHUB SOURCE RELEASES.

For Bitcoin apps, I WILL NOT USE CLOSED SOURCE APPS. Always try to use open source software, that is also vouched / verified by Bitcoin community.

Do not install whatever new Bitcoin app you heard about. Ask the community first if a specific app was used, opinions etc.

Here I wrote a dedicated comparison guide about almost all BTC/LN wallet apps, with links to their official Github repo and webpages, support etc.

Almost all open source apps are using Github as repository and platform to release their new versions. Every single decent Bitcoin app would have their “releases” page, from where you can download directly the apk file, directly into your device and from there, click and install it.

Optional, if you want more security and be sure you are downloading secure files, you can use the sha files to verify the authenticity of the software downloaded. See the documentation from each app how to do it, usually devs are providing SHA keys and instructions how to verify it.

Some of you will say, but I can use F-Droid also for this.

Yes, but keep in mind one aspect: Github is always the ORIGINAL and first repository for new releases. F-Droid is just another “app store” like that is grabbing the file from Github repo and bring it into F-Droid repo. Sometimes there are big delays in releasing updates or simply do not exist the links to F-Droid.

Some will say, but how I can be alerted when there’s a new app version?

Simple: install this simple RSS app Obtainium and subscribe (anonymously) to each Github repo you want and you will get alerts when a new release is available. Clean and simple. Here is a full video tutorial for Obtainium.

Some apps, maybe are not having a Github repo.

Yes, I would be more careful with those, that means are not open source. But anyways, let’s say are regular apps you need and are NOT Bitcoin related.

For example Mozilla Firefox or Telegram.

What you can do?

• Go to Google Play Store webpage and search for the app your are looking for.

• You will get a URL like:

  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

• Now go to APKPure webpage and paste that URL from Play Store into the search bar.

• You will get a URL like:

  https://apkpure.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

• Did you see the similarities? You could even replace “play.google.com” with “apkpure.com” and you get the same apk page from where you could download the apk file directly. No user, no tracking.

Some recommendations:

• download all your necessary apps into a home storage unit (NAS, file shared folder) and keep there a copy of all your apk files.

• Install on your mobile device a File Explorer app with support to connect to a NAS or shared LAN location. Connect to your location folder (using local WiFi network) with all the apk files and install from there all you need.

Here are some important and most used Bitcoin LN apps Github repositories (just copy/paste into your Obtainium app and add them):

• Zeus - https://github.com/ZeusLN/zeus/releases

• Blixt - https://github.com/hsjoberg/blixt-wallet/releases

• Phoenix - https://github.com/ACINQ/phoenix/releases

• Mutiny - https://github.com/MutinyWallet/mutiny-web/releases

• Green - https://github.com/Blockstream/green_qt/releases

• OBW - https://github.com/nbd-wtf/obw/releases

• Bluewallet - https://github.com/BlueWallet/BlueWallet/releases

• Breez - https://github.com/breez/breezmobile/releases

• BitBanana - https://github.com/michaelWuensch/BitBanana/releases

• Electrum - https://electrum.org/#download

• Blink - https://github.com/GaloyMoney/galoy-mobile/releases

• Bitkit - https://github.com/synonymdev/bitkit/releases

• eNuts ecash - https://github.com/cashubtc/eNuts/releases

• Minibits ecash - https://github.com/minibits-cash/minibits_wallet/releases

• BTC Maps - https://github.com/teambtcmap/btcmap-android

And non-Bitcoin apps, but useful:

• KeePassDX - https://github.com/Kunzisoft/KeePassDX/releases

• Open Organic Maps: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/releases

• K9 Email: https://github.com/thundernest/k-9

• Telegram FOSS: https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS/releases

• ProtonMail: https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-mail-android

• ProtonVPN: https://github.com/ProtonVPN/android-app/releases

• Orbot (Tor VPN): https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot/releases

• Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/#android

• Firefox Browser: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android/releases/

More useful apps, open source github links

Step 6 - Plausible deniability, Hidden profile

OK, now you have setup all your Bitcoin apps, all is working fine.

How we can add some more privacy?

All of AndroidOS distributions, GrapheneOS, CalyxOS and LineageOS, can offer specific features for more security and creating hidden profiles, where you can keep away your Bitcoin apps from lurker eyes…

Is not a perfect solution, but is a good strategy for a first level of not attracting suspicious eyes over your device. Let’s say you are attacked by some thugs, and they want you to open your phone and give them your money or whatever they think will find there. If they will see you have a lot of Bitcoin apps, the wrench attack could be very effective if you are scared and they make you open your BTC wallets.

But if they would not see any of BTC apps or just fake ones, with just few sats in it, could consider a failed attack and let you go.

So go to your device Settings and search for “Multiple users” option. For some versions is even hidden, so is not easy visible for regular users or “guests”.

Create a dummy name user and one for real use of Bitcoin apps only.

Each user profile will start with empty, standard system apps.

On the dummy profile, use your regular day to day apps, that do not bring any attention to an attacker. You could leave a fake BTC wallet app just with some few sats as a trap.

On the real profile, install all your needed BTC apps and other ones that you want to hide. Name this profile as “kids”, to have a non-suspicious name, in case somebody will see your users profile lists. Please don’t name it “BTC or Bitcoin related”, will too obvious.

On regular basis, use the dummy profile. Switch to the “BTC profile” only when you need to use any BTC app. Once you are done using it, switch back to dummy profile.

Yes, some will say that is a lot of clicking, switching etc. but at least you HAVE THIS OPTION ready. You never know when is needed. Even in an airport if they ask you to show your phone, if they see a profile with dumb apps, will not dig more…

Be smart and play dumb. Is the best way to hide.

Conclusion

OK, I think is more than enough for you, my reader, my dear padawan, to have this information about how to use a de-googled and more safe mobile device.

I know is not very detailed guide, but will be too long to explain all steps in more details. You will find in those links enough documentation and “how to” guides that can help you installing your desired clean open source Android OS.

This guides was just enough to give you some hints, indications and point you to the right direction: FREEDOM.

I hope you enjoy it and can help you into taking a good decision. If you appreciate it, please send me a message next to some sats using bellow LNURLs / LN addresses. Is all optional and add the value you consider is right.

Even if you send me 1 sat, please attach a comment to that tip (eventually a nym), I will really appreciate your comments, more than the sats. Knowing that you read my guides, gives me a lot of confidence that we are towards a free world with Bitcoin.

NOTE

I personally use 2 or even 3 devices sometimes:

• one only for personal Bitcoin use (5-6 BTC/LN apps), real life payments, clean, only BTC apps, Telegram for urgency, calls and as browsers: Firefox and Epic Browser (Chromium based + VPN + add blocker).

• one with vanilla Android (stock ROM + Google services), for testing all kind of BTC apps, dummy accounts, nothing related to me.

• one that is an old Android, also for testing, but also is a backup phone for emergencies, with basic needed apps.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

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This is a use case that I used for years, starting with 2015 (I was one of the first users of Bitwage).

DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Bitwage or have any relation with them, they do not sponsor me in any way. This is just a quick guide (by request from my readers) about how to be paid in Bitcoin. Is just another option from many others.

You can be paid in BTC, without changing our job or form of payment on the part of the company. Simply by using the Bitwage.com service, a BTC payroll conversion service. With this you no longer have to worry about “buying” or exchanging USD/EUR for BTC, from ATMs or exchanges, banks that do not accept you to link to apps like Strike or Swan (yes, some banks will start limiting the access to these kind of services).

I am surprised that many US and Canada people don't know about this amazing service! I am not living in US but I used this service from Bitwage for many years and is available all around the world.

Videos about Bitwage to watch:

• Presentation about Bitwage

• Video tutorial Invoicing

• Video tutorial Setup Payroll

• Video Tutorial Employer

• Bitwage Blog - for more details

The idea of ​​using Bitwage is simple: if your company where you work does not yet have BTC to pay your payroll, you can create an account on Bitwage as an employee / freelancer and Bitwage assigns you a bank account with IBAN, on behalf of Bitwage (not yours), but with a special code for you (the payer has to put it in the payment description). This is a perfect bank account valid to receive payments from anywhere in the world. Bitwage charges 1% of the value of the transfers that you receive in this account and the transfer of BTC is next day of the payment.

Once you receive it, you can select how you want to convert them:

• all in BTC, in a BTC address of yours, personal, of a wallet of yours that you control

• partially in BTC and USD/EUR, you can put a% of each, and then you receive a part in your BTC wallet and another part in your normal bank account.

• You can choose also a retirement plan 401k

• I think they have also already introduced a debit card option connected to this account

Steps to configure your Bitwage account:

1. Create an account as a “worker” / freelancer at https://worker.bitwage.com/

2. Edit the user profile at: https://worker.bitwage.com/profile/edit, fill in the personal data, and then select “Direct Deposit” below. Save the changes.

3. Verify at https://worker.bitwage.com/profile/bpi that “Direct Deposit” is mentioned. there he also mentions how identity verification is done. On the same page, click above where it says “Distributions” and it takes you to configure the distribution of your income. As we have said before it can be put in % of BTC and USD/EUR.

4. In “Distributions” you configure your BTC address where you want to receive the income and the desired % (a wallet of yours). Also right there you can put a normal bank account, yours, if you want to receive parts in USD/EUR/whatever fiat. Enter the “Contracts” section (see the links / tabs above). There you put the details of the company that is going to pay you. You can put anything if you don’t want to give the real data. This is just a reference, it is not verified by Bitwage.

5. Enter your profile – “Deposits & Payrolls” https://worker.bitwage.com/profile and there you can configure if you want to receive as “Direct Deposit” / freelancer or “Payroll” / recurring payroll. Direct deposit can also be used as payroll. At the moment that it is already configured, it gives you the option of downloading a pdf with a document with the details of the account that you have to inform / give to the company, to enter the USD/EUR in this account. It is very important that you specify to the company that you put in the description of the payment, as specified in the pdf.

Done! Now you just receive your wage directly into your BTC wallet. Non-custodial, low fees, good price.

I hope this quick guide will help you on your journey towards a full life of “Living on Bitcoin”. Is just a start.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

To subscribe on substack, click here:

Subscribe now

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This article was posted and registered OP_RETURN at block height #778230

Updated on my Github page

On Feb 23, 2023, Bluewallet Team announced that will shut down their custodial LNDHUB server (lndhub.io).

I saw that many users didn’t paid attention to the text of that announcement and freaked out, like the world will end… Too much noise for nothing.

What does it mean for regular Bluewallet (BW) users?

• Not too much. Yes, is affecting directly only those that are using exclusively the lndhub.io as funding source for their BW LN wallets.

• BW app it DOESN’T SHUT DOWN (as many freaked out), the app still can be used as usual, it have nothing to do with the lndhub.io.

• IF you use that lndhub.io in your BW app, you will have to move the funds out to another LN wallet, until April 30. Otherwise you will lose them. Lndhub.io was just a funding source for regular BW users that do NOT run their own node with a lndhub server. That’s all.

• If you didn’t redeem your sats from that lndhub account, you still have chance following the instructions from this Bluewallet post.

What options we you have as a Bluewallet user?

We have three categories here:

• the ones that do not run / have a LN node (easy mode)

• the ones that run their own LN node (advanced mode)

• move totally to another LN wallet (extreme case)

• or use the new (hidden) option for LDK node in Bluewallet

A. Users that do not have / can’t run their own LN node

First of all: don’t freak out, you still have time to move your funds. Is not the end of the world. Now is time for you to analyze the options and think about if is the right time to start your own LN node or just continue using custodial funding sources for your LN wallet.

If you still can’t run your own LN node, here are some alternatives where to move your funds from that lndhub.io account / Bluewallet server.

Remember: these are still custodial services! If you are OK with that, go ahead and setup your accounts. Do not keep too much funds in those accounts. Use them just enough to receive some small amounts or make small payments and then move the funds to your own wallets (onchain or LN).

Is OK to use custodial services like these as long you are not hit by crazy KYC verification. Here we have some:

• LightningTipBot - Telegram LN bot, providing rich features (LNURL, LN address, lndhub account, LN-auth, NIP-57 nostr zaps and many more).

• Alby - LN browser extension, LNURL, LN address, lndhub account, LN-auth, NIP5, NIP57 and many more features.

• LNbits - powerful LN accounting system, providing rich features and extensions for many use cases, endless LNURL and LN addresses, LN-auth, accounts. Can be run on your own server and LN node or temporarily you can use the demo instance.

• BTCPay Server - powerful LN server dedicated for merchants that include a LN bank, based on a lndhub. So you can connect your Bluewallet app easily.

• Maybe there are other not public announced lndhub providers there, for sure. Practically anybody can run a lndhub server and provide accounts for family and friends as I described in this guide.

Steps do to moving your funds from BW lndhub.io to another LN account

Choose one or all of above mentioned lndhub services and open an account. Is dumb easy. Each of those is providing information guides how to generate your lndhub account and link it to BW.

LightningTipBot - use case

Go to Telegram and start the chat with @LightningTipBot, /start, create the account linked to your Telegram account. Is better to setup first your alias in Telegram, by adding a @username.

Type /link and you will get a QR code and a URL like:

lndhub://admin:<long_string>@https://link.ln.tips/lndhub/ext/

Save that information out of your Telegram, eg. a password manager like KeePass.

Copy the URL or scan that QR and open now your Bluewallet. Go to create new LN wallet and paste the URL or scan the QR code provided in LightningTipBot.

Done! Save the new lndhub account, put a name as wish and start using it as a LN wallet.

Now in the same imported LNTipBot imported LN account, create an invoice with an amount from your old BW lndhub account.

Let’s say you had 100k sats in that BW lndhub.io account. You always will have to consider 1% as reserve for fees. So more chunks of 99% of the remaining balance, not all at once. In this case we will make an invoice of 99k sats in the new created lndhub account. Copy it and go to the old BW lndhub.io and paste it and pay it.

So you will remain with 1k sats - fees. Make another invoice in the new lndhub account of 99% of the balance. And pay it from the old lndhub.io account. Repeat the process until you consider enough to leave some sats to the BW team as a donation for their services.

Now you can remove that old LN account from your BW app and start using the new one. Is even better because you can use it in many places (telegram, ln.tips, nostr, BW or Zeus).

Remember: this LightningTipBot also provide many other useful services like:

• LN address - username@ln.tips

• LNURL address (private and public)

• NIP05 - NOSTR verification

• NIP57 - NOSTR zap address

• Donation page - https://ln.tips/@username

• Many more…

Alby extension - use case

This one is a browser extension. So you will have to create the account from a desktop computer. Again, is a custodial service, but also offer connection to your own node if you run one.

So just go to their webpage, install the browser extension, create an account and go to settings to look for the lndhub details, to be linked to your BW app.

Scan that QR code with your BW app (creating a new LN account) and done, you can use it as any other LN wallet.

Keep in mind, with this account you can login with LN-auth, use it in NOSTR as NIP-05 or tip zap address or simply as a donation page like https://getalby.com/darthcoin.

LNbits - use case

LNbits is a powerful suite software that can be run on top of a LN node. If you want to use it just as a temporary funding LN source, you can use the public demo server https://legend.lnbits.com.

Remember: this is just a demo custodial server! Please don’t abuse it! Is OK to move your funds there for a certain time, but not consider it as your main funding source. Later just move out your funds from there to your own LN wallets or onchain wallets. You can even use the LNbits extension Boltz or Deezy to swap your funds to any onchain address or use the Scrub extension to automatically forward the received funds to a self custody LN node / address.

If you use the demo or any other public hosted LNbits instance, you can export your lndhub account, by going to the lndhub extension and scan or copy paste the lndhub URL into your Bluewallet app as a new LN account.

Same, you can do the steps explained in the previous point about LightningTipBot.

Optionally you can run your own LNbits instance, even without running a LN node but choosing an external funding source (see the LNbits documentation).

You can create a free account on LNpay.co for example and link it as a funding source for your LNbits self-hosted instance. You can even use the LightningTipBot as funding source for your LNbits instance. That means you will use those servers liquidity for your own LNbits instance! Is quite insane but is working amazingly as of temporary solution.

B. Users that have their own LN node

If you are in this category, here are the options you have:

• install the BW lndhub repository on your own LN node. Umbrel, myNode, Citadel

  already have this built in, you just have to install it from their app store. Then connect to your own lndhub server and create endless lndhub accounts (hosted) into your Bluewallet apps. Here I wrote a guide about this.

• install the lndhub libraries from BW team Github. Then provide to yourself and/or to your family and friends several lndhub accounts that can be used in the Bluewallet app.

• Other methods using LNbits on your node., here is a guide.

This option is also described in my other guide about being a LN bank for your community.

This is one of the best options because in this way you are helping more people around you and also offer good LN services to your family members and friends, in a more private way to use LN.

C. Move to another LN wallet app

Yes, this is the simple one. But if you are a new LN user, moving to another new LN wallet app sometimes is frustrating, until you learn it.

Don’t worry, is nothing wrong to move away from Bluewallet app, if you really want to make the next step to a more advanced level.

Making this move, means you want to go for a more self-custody solution and that is always welcomed in the Bitcoin space. More self-custody means more sovereignty, means more financial freedom.

What options do you have?

• Mobile non-custodial LN nodes: important guide here, about private nodes.

• More LN wallets, choose wisely from this comparison guide.

Remember: Do not choose a LN wallet app just because somebody else “recommended” you. Choose the wallet app that suits better your use case, your habits, your amount of spending over LN etc.

Anybody that “recommend” a wallet app it doesn’t know you or your particular case of using LN, or simply want to shill a particular app.

NEVER use only one LN wallet app, always use at least 2-3 to have a load balancing and backup. Spread your LN stash through some of them and be ready to use them anytime.

D. Activate the hidden LDK node in Bluewallet

Yes, you hear it very well, Bluewallet have now an integrated LDK node as Lightning wallet. And this is good.

But remember, is still in beta so proceed with caution.

How to activate it?

Tap the "+" to Add Wallet, then tap the Lightning button 10 times.

Voila, you can then create a wallet via LDK.

Save the seed words in a safe place and now you can start opening channels, with Bluewallet LSP node. To do that, click on “funding wallet” button and select any onchain wallet you already have configured in your Bluewallet that have funds enough to open a LN channel. You should keep that onchain wallet always linked with your LDK node, do not remove it from your Bluewallet app. In case of closure of a channel, the funds will come back to that onchain wallet that was funding the channel.

Done, now you can use your Bluewallet LDK as any other regular LN wallet, in a more self-custody mode.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, the world is not ending just because BW team announced that their custodial lndhub server end to provide some custodial LN liquidity for noob users.

This is LN world, in continuous changing and improving.

I see this shut down as a good thing for BTC/LN world. That will make more people think and be prepared to run their own LN nodes, own lndhub servers and provide more semi-custodial-trusted services for their community.

Please DO NOT FREAK OUT! Is a good thing that this happen.

The whole Bitcoin power stays in SELF CUSTODY. So learn how to do that.

I really hope this guide will give you more insight and determination to run your own LN node and provide these kind of services for your own family and friends that are not so skilled with this technology. Please help them. This is the future.

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

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This article was posted and registered OP_RETURN at block height #775009

Updated 01 October 2024

INTRODUCTION

This guide is dedicated to all those new users that want to start using Bitcoin over Lightning Network, just enough to test, practice, personal use, shopping with Lightning Network payments, in real life.

Yes, I wrote here and here extensive guides about LN wallets, custodial or non-custodial. But in this guide I will not explain about LN wallets, but LN private nodes.

Today, Jan 2023, many newbies, without enough knowledge about how to run a LN node and use LN in real life, fall into the hype of “run your LN node, be part of the network”…

Nothing wrong with that assessment. Yes, is good to be part of the Network, but when YOU KNOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING. I do not want to discourage you from running a LN node, but choose wisely which type is more suited for you.

This is like calling everybody “to be part of the airplane pilots network”, yes, just grab the cheapest airplane and start flying…. you will read the instructions manual meanwhile you are flying.

No, running a PUBLIC Lightning Network node IS A SERIOUS TASK. And if you are not prepared, at least at a basic level, you are making more damage to the network, than being part of it. LN is like a living micro-organism, if there’s a bad part of it, it will affect all the rest in the end.

So what is the purpose of this guide?

Explaining to all those newbies that there are two types of LN nodes:

• Public Routing Nodes

• Private non-routing nodes

Both have an important role for the network. And I will explain you in simple terms what does it means and how to use a private non-routing node.

And people SHOULD make the difference between public and private. In Lightning Network, the terms means:

• Public = announced node and channels, are visible in the public LN graph. These are nodes that CAN ROUTE others payments through their channels. A public routing node can be also a LSP (Liquidity Service Provider). As I explained here.

• Private = un-announced node and channels, are not visible in the public LN graph, but still accessible, through routing hints. These are nodes that CANNOT ROUTE others payments, but can do any of THEIR payments, in and out, through the routing nodes.

A. Public Routing Nodes

These are all the LN nodes that usually you can see them listed on any Lightning Explorer (Amboss, Mempool, 1ML see more here).

Even that some will not add an alias name to their node (that is more for fun and public reconnaissance of big nodes), each of these public nodes, still have an unique identifier, the node ID, that is generated at creation of the node.

Some of them will show a public IP (be that a normal clearnet IP, or a VPN IP) and some will use only Tor address. Even that they are using a Tor address (that will not reveal their real location or IP) are still PUBLIC nodes.

For running a public routing node, you MUST have a good amount of liquidity to put “skin in the game”. This liquidity is not “locked” in LN as many erroneously say. No, as a routing node you can still make use of that liquidity, by making your own LN payments.

I will not enter in too much details here, about how to run a public routing node. I wrote several guides about that and please read them all, if you want to go on that path. But BE AWARE: don’t even start a routing node if your whole Bitcoin stash is just few thousands of sats. We are talking about for at least 1 BTC that you are willing to put as liquidity if you really want to be a good routing node, otherwise is just wasting time, your time and others time…

Also NEVER put all your Bitcoin stash in a LN node. I suggest to keep like 30% or max 40% of your whole stash into a routing LN node.

To read more about Public Routing LN Nodes:

• Lightning Explained - The airport analogy - MUST READ

• What BTC/LN node software can I run?

• Running a Umbrel Node (this guide is not just about Umbrel but also about how to run a routing node)

• Umbrel / LND node - SHTF scenario (restore procedures)

• Lightning Network is awesome - huge list of LN resources

• Node liquidity guide - how to use 3 different nodes to move liquidity

• Lightning Routing Fees Experiment - very important guide

• Lightning Network Submarine Swaps

• Lightning Node Maintenance

• Recommendations for new LN node users - Darth warning

• Using Tailscale with your node

• Operating with LN as a merchant

• Private Banks over Lightning Network

  … and many more (about specific use cases) on my substack, in many languages translated.

B. Private Lightning Nodes

So now let’s dive into “what the fuck are these private LN nodes”?

The main use case for these is to be used in a more private way. Having their nodeID and channels not announced to the whole public network, make them to be positioned at the outer rim of LN Galaxy, but still connected to the whole network.

Using these private nodes, you still need to put some liquidity in the game, but this time, only for your own level of payments (in and out). That means is more suitable for people that:

• regular noob guy that want to start using LN, to test payments, learn more

• do not have too many BTC (yet) to open big channels

• do not want to use too much from their BTC stash, but still want to use LN

• want to have more privacy using LN

• they still have a public node, but want to use also private nodes for other type of payments, more private, swaps, moving liquidity etc.

And all this without using a custodial solution. There are many out there pretending to offer the best LN experience. Yes some of those custodial solutions (especially the non-KYC ones) have their own use case but we are not going to talk about here.

As you can see in my previous guide about LN wallets, I separate them into 4 main categories: Beginner (custodial), Intermediary (non-custodial), Advanced A (node wallets), Advanced B (node management). Please read that guide to see all their functionalities and capabilities.

Here we talk about how to manage and use the Advanced node wallets, because I saw many newbies that still don’t know these even exist! With these mobile or desktop apps you can still learn how to manage LN liquidity, channels, nodes, but with a low level approach, with simple steps. This is the perfect way to learn by using it, without disrupting the other processes of the whole Lightning Network.

If you had previously a LN node and you failed to understand it and run it, but you still want to learn more, I suggest you to not throw it away. That piece of hardware is still very useful.

Just install on it: a linux Debian OS + Bitcoin Core Node + Electrum Server / Fulcrum and use it as your main Bitcoin node to validate, broadcast and verify your txs mainly, also offering you more privacy.

All these mobile nodes NEED a Bitcoin Core node anyways, to which have to sync the main-chain (Neutrino or Electrum SPV). So your old (failed) node still can have a very important role for the network.

So let’s see how you could use these desktop and mobile apps for specific cases:

• Blixt Wallet Node (mobile + macOS, based on Neutrino and LND)

• Zeus LN (mobile, based on Neutrino and LND, LN address)

• Breez (mobile, based on Neutrino and LND)

• Phoenix (mobile, based on Electrum SPV and Eclair)

• Green (mobile, based on Electrumk SPV and CLN Greenlight)

• Electrum (desktop + mobile, based on Electrum SPV and ElectrumLN)

• Bluewallet (mobile + macOS, based on Electrum SPV and LDK)

• Bitkit (mobile, based on Electrum SPV and LDK), still in beta)

• Alby Hub (desktop app for various LN funding backends- LND, phoenixd, LDK, ecash mint, greenlight)

LSP - Liquidity Service Providers

What is a LSP? Read here. Consider a LSP your must have peer for your private node.

Here is a list of LSPs with which you can open regular channels and also 0-conf channels with these private LN nodes:

• Community list of good peers for Blixt and Zeus

• Olympus - LSP for Zeus and also for other regular private and public nodes

• Blixt - LSP for Blixt and also for other regular private and public nodes

• Megalithic - LSP for Alby Hub with public and private channels

• LNServer - selling inbound channels

• FlashSats - selling inbound channels for public and private nodes

• Blocktank - LSP for Bitkit and also for other regular private and public nodes

• Breez - LSP for Breez and also for other regular private and public nodes

• Thor - General LSP and inbound channels provider

• LQwD - General LSP and inbound channels provider

• LNBig - General LSP and inbound channels provider

• Acinq - LSP for Phoenix and also for other regular private and public nodes

… and many more, read about them here in these two other guides:

• guide about LN liquidity

• guide about running your own Dunder LSP

Blixt - very powerful mobile LN node

Few people know about the existence of this powerful LN mobile node. Yes, it is a full LND node in your own mobile (also desktop for Mac and soon for Linux), with all functions to self manage your own LN channels and liquidity.

Blixt is using full LND implementation with Neutrino for blocks sync.

Will not enter in all Blixt Wallet app details, I wrote extensive guides presenting the app and use cases on the Blixt Wallet documentation page:

• Getting started with Blixt mobile node

• Blixt LN Node & wallet

• More Blixt guides and FAQ - I wrote about specific use cases

Please read them and pay attention to the details. It will help you understand more about suing this type of private nodes.

Here I will present only a simple use case of mobile LN node liquidity management using Blixt Wallet app.

In order to have a good liquidity, not just for now, but also for future use, you should have max 3-4 channels, but with different node peers, not just one. So let's consider that during a week, you need a max 2M sats TO RECEIVE, roughly. The amount can be adjusted by each user's needs. Let's consider also that during the same week, you will make less payments, let's say roughly 300k sats. So each week will remain with a balance on his side of 1.7M sats, roughly.

Instead of having 6 channels, each of 400k sats max capacity ( a total of 2.4M sats), better have 3 channels, each of 1M sats. Adjust it for you inbound needs.

SCENARIO A

Open 3 big channels, each one of 1M sats:

• 1 with Blixt node

• 1 with your own node (if you have one) or a friend node (trusted). If you do not want/have such friend, use just another well known node

• 1 with any other good node, well connected. See here some recommended peers

Done. Now you have 3M sats in 3 channels. All outbound liquidity. So let's make some space. Use any of the convenient swaps (Deezy, Boltz, FixedFloat, Robosats etc) and swap to your any onchain wallet, at least 50% of all your outbound liquidity.

You can do it in 3 batches (recommended for smaller amounts) or all at once (could fail because of other routing nodes low liquidity routes). You can try both cases.

If you need more inbound liquidity, swap out more sats, to your any other onchain address, using these swaps.

But do not close those channels. Not yet. A channel should be closed only when you do not have enough liquidity or peer is not responsive/offline too much time.

So now you have enough inbound liquidity to buy more from Robosats.

Buy more, swap out, make payments, happy Lightning. Repeat. Never close those channels. Use them back and forth.

SCENARIO B

Keep one channel open, one in which you have enough sats to buy an inbound channel from any LSP (LNBig, Bitrefill etc). All the rest, close them.

Once are closed, buy 2 big inbound channels from those LSP. Each one of 1-2M sats, enough to handle a large amount of payments. When you have them ready, you can go and buy more sats from Robosats.

Swap out to onchain using the swap services mentioned before and be happy, you made more space for buying more. Or just use those sats for making payments over LN.

Never close those 2 big channels. Buy - swap out - spend - buy more.

When you have 2 or more different channels with different peers, yes is recommended to use the MPP (multi-path payment). But when you have just one channel or multiple channels with same peer, the MPP it doesn't work and could end up in "route failed".

So is always recommended to have channels with different peers / nodes and big enough to handle your regular transactions in a certain period of time.

Zeus LN - very powerful mobile LND node

Starting with the new version v 0.8.0 Zeus launched the embedded LND node into the mobile app. Read more about the new release on Zeus blog.

Apart from regular LN node management and LNDHUB accounts, now Zeus can run a full LN node, using Neutrino as backend for block sync and LND as LN node integrated into the app.

It also come with LSP so users can receive straight away sats into LN. Users can still open other regular private LN channels and manage them as they wish. See here some node peers recommendations for your new Zeus node.

More than that, users can have their own LN address provided by Olympus server.

Definitely a must use LN app for your mobile.

I wrote a dedicated guide about Zeus here.

Read more about using Zeus embedded node on Zeus Docs.

Here also is a good thread discussion about Zeus node.

Valet (ex-OBW) - simple and powerful mobile LN node

This is a fork of the old BLW and later SBW, then OBW… all discountinued.

Now is Valet.

Valet is using Immortan LN implementation with Electrum SPV for blocks sync.

Valet could be your simple, best way to start using Lightning payments. So you are not receiving too much over LN but you want to spend more.

Valet is using normal LN private channels but also a particular way - hosted channels.

These hosted channels (HC) main characteristics are:

• lightweight credit-based virtual channels that use an open and interoperable protocol

• can open hosted channels to any node that supports the host side of the protocol

• cannot be traced and do not require capital or chain fee costs

How to use Valet, steps to do:

• Download, install, open Valet and save your seed. Basic first steps.

• Send some funds from your regular onchain wallets to your Valet. Start with 1 or 2M sats.

• Open 1 or 2 channels with different peers. Preferably those with low fees. See also the recommended peers inside Valet app.

• Start spending, have fun. Here and here are some examples where you could start spending some sats. Supporting BTC merchants is very important if you want that Bitcoin to succeed.

• If your LN channels are dry, no problem you could use any swap service to refill them (as I explained in this guide) or close the ones you have and open bigger ones, if your spending habits are increasing. Is better to keep open existing channels because closing and opening channels imply more fees and also could reveal final balance in your UTXOs (but this is another story explained in another guides here and also here).

• If you want to use a hosted channels (HC) for more privacy when you receive, is up to you, just open some of them and start using them as receive source. There’s also an interesting feature of OBW that you can drain a HC into a regular LN channel, straight from OBW. Just click on a HC and you will see in the pop-up screen the option to select “drain channel balance”. You will be prompted in which other regular channel you want to move the funds.

This is a good opsec operation if you want to move funds, internally, from one channel to another and later make a swap out to onchain. Use your imagination :)

Read more use cases and full guide for Valet here:

• Getting started with OBW mobile LN node

• Using Private banks over Lightning Network

Breez - Good mobile node with limited node functions

Breez is using a forked version of LND implementation with Neutrino blocks sync.

This one is trying to offer a simple user interface, with limited functions for managing your node channels. For a beginner is a good start. It still offer a non-custodial way to manage your funds, but you do not have the full liberty of choosing the peers, fees, routes etc.

In the same time, is offering more user friendly and good features like POS and podcasting. The backup procedure is a bit complicated and depending on a 3rd party service, user still can’t just export the channels backup on local device and manage it from there, but have the option to use a Google drive, webdav, Nextcloud.

Managing liquidity is pretty easy, you just have to deposit / receive sats and automatically it will open LN channels using their LSP node.

You can also open channels with specific node peers if you want, but using the advanced methods, hidden into the “Developers” menu. You can also use the LNURL-channels option from those LSP that offer this method.

For somebody that don’t want to bother with node liquidity management, this is a good option.

Open channels not too big, not too small, but enough to cover your regular LN payments during a certain time and amounts.

Phoenix - easy to onboard mobile LN node

Phoenix is using a proprietary Eclair LN implementation with Electrum SPV.

This one is based on Acinq LN channels and Electrum (onchain recovery).

So once you receive / deposit sats into this wallet, automatically it will open channels with ACINQ node. Usually the size of the channels will be slightly bigger than the amount you deposited. So you will always have a new channel for each deposit, except that when you have not totally drained channel and you receive a smaller payment, it will be refilled.

For Phoenix I would suggest the following scenario:

Phoenix is opening a channel slightly bigger than what are you depositing, I could say with a 10% more. With the new version v0.2.0 that comes with the new LN feature named channel splicing. That means from now on you will not have to deal anymore with lots of new small channels for each payment received.

If there’s not enough inbound liquidity, Phoenix will increase the size of your initial channel, but that will still imply an onchain fee. You can setup that fee anyways in Phoenix settings.

So I suggest to start using Phoenix with a big channel, like 1-3-5M sats. Your commit fees will be insignificant comparing with the size of the channel and will not affect you too much. Also instead of paying 4 times (or whatever many times you deposit small amounts) min 3000 sats fees, you will pay only once.

If you start spending from that channel, do not spend it all, because Phoenix will close it. If you leave some sats in the channel and make another refill from another LN wallet / source, with an amount bigger than you channel capacity, Phoenix will resize the channel and you will pay an extra fee. If you receive less than channel capacity, will be no fees involved.

So try to size your initial channel capacity to your personal needs for spending. Spend and replace in the limits of the channel will not occur anymore fees and the experience using this wallet app will be smooth.

For each payment you are doing, this wallet is using quite high fees, compared with other nodes. Yes, somehow they have to cover their expenses and support the dev team. Nothing is for free in this world.

This wallet also have integrated swaps onchain ←→ LN channels, so you could practically use it as a personal swap, you could pay instantly onchain with your LN funds and vice versa.

It is very good option for newbies, that just started with LN and don’t know too much about a node management, but still could have a self custody of their funds. Even if you lose your mobile device, you can use the seed words and recover your funds in an Electrum wallet or on another mobile device with Phoenix.

Green - easy to start without any liquidity

Right now (Dec 2023) Green LN is still in beta phase, but soon will come out for all users. To play around and test it, you would need to activate the “experimental” features and open a LN “account”, is actually a CLN node using Greenlight, where the keys stays on your device.

If you want to use only the LN node, you don’t have to open an onchain account, just skip the initial setup and go straight for LN account. Each account in Green is separate and have no links between.

Go to App Settings (top left drawer on main screen) and activate “Experimental features”.

Once you’ve done that, go back to Accounts screen and click on “Create new account“ button from top right. Then on the bottom, click on “Advanced features”. You will see that now you can create a “Lightning Account”.

Read more about what is a Lightning Account and how to create it here.

Read more about “Wallet” and “Accounts” here.

Some aspects to remember:

• This LN account will have maximum 4M sats capacity.

• To open it, you will have to deposit some sats, from another LN wallet and you will be charged a small fee for opening the channel. Try with 50 - 100k first, then play around.

• You will be asked to encrypt the node keys on your device with YOUR device PIN. Be aware, some users the tried using a new PIN, but is actually your device security PIN. It is NOT the Green app PIN, that you normally set for opening.

• Save the LN nose seed for backup !

• Save the nodeID for backup and later use !

• The node liquidity is offered ONLY through Blockstream Greenlight LSP (similar with Phoenix), but the keys stays on your device.

Green is supporting fully LNURL, except LUD-18 and 02. And it works pretty well.

It could be a very good option for total noobs to start using LN in a self-custody manner.

Electrum (desktop or mobile) wallet

Electrum is using a ElectrumLN implementation with Electrum SPV blocks sync.

Yes, many don’t know that Electrum, the oldest BTC wallet app is also a powerful LN wallet. And is very easy to use it as a node LN wallet.

You have 2 options for using it as LN node:

• trampoline LN channels - are opened with specific nodes that will provide you the route hints and paths.

• normal LN channels, but private (un-announced) - you are opening these channels with any node you want.

One important aspect: you must choose in the beginning which type you want to use, you can’t use both types in the same time.

Also is good to mention: Electrum have integrated swaps onchain ←→ LN channels. So you could easily refill or drain your Electrum LN channels, with just one click. Yes, there is a cost of these swaps, but is very clear and you will always know how much you will pay for doing it.

For a personal LN use, I would recommend to use Electrum as following.

a. If you want more privacy:

• connect your Electrum to your own node (Electrum Server)

• open trampoline channels

• optional use Tor or VPN

• when you drain all your LN channels, move the onchain remaining sats to a new Electrum wallet and start over with a new identity. You can run as many you want. You can even have multiple Electrum instances in the same time.

b. If you want to use with a friend’s node or a trusted node or simply with choosen public nodes:

• connect your Electrum to your own Electrum Server. If you do not have such server, at least use a trusted Electrum Server (eg. Blockstream.info) or a friend’s node (he will provide you a specific address from his Electrum Server).

• open normal private LN channels with the public nodes you want. But be aware that not all of public nodes will tolerate private channels or some of them have specific rules about how much time will keep them or will close them if there’s no activity.

• optional use Tor or VPN

• use those channels as much as you want. When are drained, you can refill them from your existing onchain balance from your Electrum wallet or from any other onchain wallet you have.

• don’t open too many and too big, but enough to cover your regular LN payments for a certain time.

Bluewallet - new LDK node integrated (beta)

After Bluewallet ceased their custodial LNDHUB node, they introduced a self custodial node using LDK LN implementation.

For the moment is quite new and still in beta, that’s why is hidden, but if you want to activate it it’s easy:

Tap the "+" to Add Wallet, then tap the Lightning button 10 times.

Done, now you can then create a node wallet via LDK.

You will be provided with a LDK seed, save the seed words in a safe place and now you can start opening channels, with any other LN node. To do that, click on “funding wallet” button and select any onchain wallet you already have configured in your Bluewallet that have funds enough to open a LN channel. You should keep that onchain wallet always linked with your LDK node, do not remove it from your Bluewallet app. In case of closure of a channel, the funds will come back to that onchain wallet that was funding the channel.

You have the option to scan a peer node URI QR code or select one of the most well connected public nodes using the arrows.

Again, don’t open small channels, use like 1-3-5M sats channel. Yes is still in beta but with the high fees situation you will end up with unusable channel if is too small.

Done, now you can use your Bluewallet LDK as any other regular LN wallet, in a more self-custody mode.

BitKit - still in development, early Beta phase

Please, do not use this app if you are not a beta tester! Still have many bugs to be fixed and regular users are not familiar with these.

Bitkit offers a Bitcoin wallet that supports both on-chain and lightning transactions. The application runs a custom, non-routing Lightning node created with the Lightning Development Kit on the user's mobile phone. It requires a connection to an external server running a Bitcoin full node and an Electrum server.

Users will be automatically on-boarded to Lightning through the integration of lightning service provider (LSP) Blocktank. Developers can also create their own LSP using Blocktank. In the future, will support users to connect to their own Lightning and Bitcoin nodes, select different types of LSPs, couple hardware wallets, and manage their own Lightning channels.

Users can back up all their on-chain Bitcoin data with a standard BIP-39 seed. Lightning channel data should automatically be stored on a backup server. The data needs to be encrypted on the client-side before it is sent to a server to ensure privacy.

The other main features Bitkit supports are the creation of social profiles; the importing and managing of contacts; dynamic payment profiles; key-based account logins; and the display of public data feeds and private account data through in-application widgets. You can experiment with these features in the playground.

BE AWARE, Bitkit seems to not respect too much their users and their main focus is not onto making it a LN node wallet, but something else.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, there are quite good alternatives to run a LN node in a private mode, with less “responsibilities” than running a public routing node and still participating into a great payment network.

Remember those public routing nodes need as many of these private mobile nodes, because these mobile nodes are actually the ones that are making most of the real life payments in merchants shops. And the public routing nodes are practically routing your mobile payments through their complicated rings of liquidity and routes, charging small fees but also sometimes high fees, depending on each node’s greed level. That’s why is important for you, as a mobile node user, to choose wisely to which node you are connected.

In time, yes, these routes will be improved, with better fees, better nodes, better protocols.

That’s why I wrote this guide, to avoid that those users with less training to run un-prepared public routing nodes and avoid all the madness and stuck payments, expensive routes etc for the large use of the rest of the network.

Your liquidity, even if is private is also very important, participating into this vast payment network. Those public routing nodes, yes are opening multiple routes and want to charge a fee for that. This is a market driven mechanism, self adjusted by demand and offer. If all these mobile LN wallets will not exist or not used for real life payments to the merchants, all those touring nodes, in the end, will not have anymore “clients” for their routes. So as you can see is kind of “self-sustained” environment.

START USING YOUR SATS AS MONEY! Now we have a powerful payment network!

This is the only way we can make obsolete the fiat money system and the slavery.

Read more guides about using these LN wallets for specific use cases:

• Lightning Cleaning Machine

• First steps to accept Bitcoin as a merchant

• Bitcoin for small merchants

• Node Liquidity Guide

• Lightning Submarine Swaps

• Bitcoin and Privacy

• Lightning payments real life examples

• Operating with Lightning as a merchant

• Private Banks over Lightning Network

MAY THE ₿ITCOIN BE WITH YOU!

If you appreciate DarthCoin work, you can send some satoshis to darthcoin@getalby.com or darthcoin@stacker.news or darthcoin.blink.sv

or using Cashu Address darthcoin@minibits.cash

If you do not want to subscribe on substack, all DarthCoin Bitcoin guides are also announced on this dedicated Telegram Channel, for easy search and keep track.

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