Wallet Setup

Quick comparison

Recommended: Node Launcher

The fastest way to get a receiving wallet. Deploy your own LND node on a VPS you control, directly from the bolthub dashboard.

What you get:

• Your own LND node running on your choice of VPS provider
• Fully non-custodial: you control the seed phrase and private keys
• Sub-200ms invoice creation
• Automatic connection to your bolthub project
• Channel and liquidity management tools in the dashboard

Supported VPS providers:

• Scaleway — Cheapest option at ~€3/month. European data centers (Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw).
• Hetzner Cloud — Starting at ~$4.50/month. European data centers.
• LunaNode — Bitcoin-friendly Canadian provider that accepts BTC payments, starting at ~$3.50/month.
• Vultr — 32 global data centers, accepts crypto. Starting at ~$6/month.
• DigitalOcean — Global coverage with data centers worldwide, starting at ~$6/month.

Setup steps:

1. In the bolthub dashboard, go to Nodes (or click "Deploy Node" during endpoint creation)
2. Pick your VPS provider and add your API key
3. Pick a region and server size (the cheapest option works well)
4. Click Deploy My Node and wait 3-5 minutes
5. When prompted, open the Lightning Terminal UI to create your wallet
6. Write down your 24-word seed phrase and store it safely
7. Click "I've backed up my seed" to finalize setup
8. Your node is automatically connected as your receiving wallet

Security: Your seed phrase is generated on your VPS and never touches bolthub servers. bolthub stores only the connection credentials (encrypted), not your keys.

Alternative: NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect)

Easiest setup if you already have a compatible wallet, but slower invoice creation.

Setup steps:

1. Open your wallet app (Alby Hub, Primal, Zeus, CoinOS, etc.)
2. Create an NWC connection with permissions: make_invoice, lookup_invoice, get_balance
3. Copy the NWC URI (nostr+walletconnect://...)
4. In bolthub dashboard, go to Settings, select NWC, paste the URI
5. Click Test connection

Trade-off: Invoice creation takes ~5-7s (relay dependent), vs ~200ms with LND.

Alternative: Existing LND Node

If you already run an LND node (Umbrel, Start9, self-hosted):

1. Expose the REST API over HTTPS
2. Export the admin macaroon: xxd -ps -u -c 1000 admin.macaroon
3. In bolthub dashboard, select LND, enter the host URL and macaroon
4. Click Test connection

Alternative: Self-hosted Docker

For technical users who want to run a node at home for free:

1. Clone the btc-node-light repo
2. Run ./setup.sh to configure and start your node
3. Create your wallet in the Lightning Terminal UI
4. Connect to bolthub using your LND REST host and macaroon

See the repo README for detailed instructions.

Alternative: LNbits

Open-source accounts system on top of any Lightning funding source:

1. Deploy LNbits with an LND backend (self-hosted or via a provider)
2. Get your LNbits URL and Admin Key
3. In bolthub dashboard, select LNbits, enter the URL and key
4. Click Test connection

Security checklist

• Never expose wallet credentials in frontend code
• Use HTTPS for all remote wallet connections
• Restrict access by IP/firewall where possible
• Rotate credentials if accidentally shared
• Keep wallet credentials only in server environment variables
• Back up your seed phrase and store it offline

Receiver-ready verification

Before going live, verify your wallet can:

1. Create invoices via API (test in bolthub settings)
2. Receive payment from an external wallet (not the same wallet)
3. Report settlement correctly via lookupInvoice
4. Handle burst traffic (20+ invoices in 60 seconds)