The information below tells you how to use lightning and various wallets.
If you are already using “Wallet of Satoshi” or the Breez Wallet or any wallet that supports lnurl and just want to tip me, you can use this QR code or simply send Bitcoin on Wallet of Satoshi to beefypersian37@walletofsatoshi.com
Please note – Wallet of Satoshi assigns a randomly generated email to all wallets, I didn’t choose that one but it does indeed make me laugh.
Also Note – The QR code will only work on wallets that support lnurl like Wallet of Satoshi or Breeze. Exodus is a great way to get into lightning but does not yet support the lnurl protocol, if you don’t know what that means it is okay, I didn’t know either a week ago (as of 5-19-22) but below is all the basics.
One More Note – If you install and play with Breez the first time you receive to it it has to sync and this takes a while (like 20 minutes with the app open), but it only has to do so one time.
The Mission of TipLightning.com!
I am going to use this page to encourage use of the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Lightning Networks. I am also going to use it to encourage tipping in return for the content I provide. I hope some day to make TipLightning.com into a larger resource, tool or series of tools to empower more use of lightning. For now we will just use it to help bitcoiners begin using the lightning network.
Starting out, for your day to day use of bitcoin and lightning I recommend using the Exodus Wallet. Once you have Bitcoin in your Exodus Wallet you can move some of your bitcoin onto the lightning network. There is a fixed fee for this and you can move up to 1,000 dollars. At the time of this writing that fee is $1.19 (USD) So the more you move the lower the precent. Move 100 dollars and your fee is effectively 1.19% but move 50 and the fee is effectively 2.38%, move 200 and your fee is effectively .59%. I hope that makes sense.
To learn how to enable Lightning on Exodus just watch this video. I recommend starting out with say 50-200 bucks. Don’t worry about the fee, a buck isn’t much and consider it tuition to learn without much risk until you get comfortable.
The thing about lightning is, it is for FAST, CHEAP and generally SMALL transactions. Like tipping, micro tipping, buying a coffee, paying for a dinner, etc. If you were buying a 10,000 dollar car for Bitcoin the fee on the transaction would be tiny to the whole and waiting 5-10 minutes for it to clear completely is no big deal. If you like something I say though and want to send me say 50 cents, it would cost more in fees to send 50 cents of bitcoin than the 50 cents itself. This is where lightning comes in.
Once you have your bitcoin “on lightning” you can send it fast, super cheap (fractions of a cent) and in small amounts. I have sent transactions as low as 50 cents to people just to show them how well it works.
Here is the key if you don’t want to run a node, which is complex and requires some effort the first challenge is getting some regular old Bitcoin, off chain and into a lightning wallet. Fortunately this is where Exodus comes in. Again just watch this video and you can do that in Exodus (mobile only for now) in a few seconds.
Now here is the current weakness of Lightning Wallets in general. They all are a tiny bit different, but to receive lightning most have the option to generate an invoice. Some make you state the amount on the invoice, some let the sender enter the amount. All basic invoices expire in 24 hours. So you can’t just set up a QR code for tipping, etc. and post it on your site or in your feed, etc.
That is the bad news.
The good news is you can run a few lightning wallets for different purposes and once you are on the network moving the funds from one of your wallets to another depending on what you wish to do is fast, stupid cheap and really kind of fun and empowering. Now one way around this invoice issue is using something called “lnurl” coupled with “keysend” which leverages the decades old web and email protocols. Basically in your wallet you send bitcoin to an email address or web url. Not all wallets use this (yet) so if you want to use Wallet of Satoshi which is by far the most simple of all wallets to use. For now I recommend this.
Use Exodus to store your main bitcoin with your own private keys. Then also use their wallet to put bitcoin into lightning form. Keep it there for any needs where you can send to another party with an invoice. Also set up Wallet of Satoshi on your mobile device though. Anytime you want to use lnurl or a bitcoin lightning email address, you can simply transfer from Exodus to Wallet of Satoshi in seconds by using an invoice, it really only takes seconds and will cost about a penny to do. Want it back on the main chain, you can send from Wallet of Satoshi to any regular BTC address any time (though standard fees apply) or move it back to Exodus on lightning or to ANY OTHER Lightning Wallet.
This all sounds a lot harder than it is. Soon I will be setting up a presentation with screen shots to show how to do all of this. Once you do it you will really understand the power of sovereign money (Bitcoin) and an instant global payments network for it with almost zero fees that anyone can build on (lightning).
When I do it will be like a mini how to use lightning course. Yes, I want to empower my audience to send me tips on lightning but more I want you to be empowered by it. I want you to understand how fast, cheap and private it is. I want you doing business with each other on it and with other people, companies, etc.
It is new so it does take a tiny bit of effort to get started but if you can, in general use apps, you can use lightning, it isn’t actually hard to do, at all.
Final Note – In time I plan to build this out to be a full how to section on other lightning wallets, how to stream sats to your favorite podcasters, etc. That is the minimum this will become. That said I honestly would like to take it further by running some nodes and building either a web plugin or a highly functional simple wallet. I absolutely do not have the skills or time to do that but if you are a developer I might be interested in hearing your pitch. If you want to start a dialog with me about it email me with TSPC Lightning in the subject line. If you can’t figure out my email don’t bother as you are clearly not qualified to work with me on this project. (sorry not sorry).
Lightning Wallets You Can Try Out…
- Exodus (a main multi currency wallet with a lightning option, easisest way I know to move regular bitcoin onto lightning)
- Wallet of Satoshi (supports lnurl/email addresses and is about as simple to use as any wallet gets)
- Breez – (Integrates Adam Curry’s value for value to stream to podcasters, can use lnurl to send but far as I can tell not to recieve)
- BlueWallet – (will run as a hosted wallet or can be tied into your own node, I have not worked with it yet but a lot of people love it)
- Spark Wallet – (not tried this at all yet but supports email sending (lnurl) and is well liked in the lightning community)
- I also recommend you check out LightningAddress.com not a wallet but it powers lnurl/emailsend and lists apps and wallets currently using said technology.