Connecting to a lightning node remotely

• Remote connection formats summary table

• LND

  • RPC

  • LNDconnect

  • Balance of Satoshis

  • BTCPayserver

• C-lightning

  • Spark Wallet

  • Sparko

  • C-lightning REST (with Zeus)

  • BTCPayserver

• Eclair

  • BTCPayServer

• Notes

Remote connection formats summary table

LND	prefix	d	server	d	auth	d	tls	d
lndconnect	lndconnect://		grpc_host:10009	?	macaroon=base64_macaroon	&	cert=base64_cert
BoS		{	"socket": "grpc_host:10009"	,	"macaroon": "base64_macaroon"	,	"cert": "base64_cert"	}
BTCPay	type=lnd-rest	;	https://rest_host:8080/	;	macaroon=hex_macaroon	;	certthumbprint=hex_cert

C-lightning	prefix	d	server	d	auth	d	tls
Spark Wallet / Sparko			spark_rpc_host	?	access-key=accessKey
BTCPay unix socket	type=clightning	;	server=unix://home/user/.lightning/lightning-rpc
BTCPay TCP	type=clightning	;	server=tcp://tcp_host:27743/
BTCPay Charge	type=clightning	;	server=https://charge_host:8080/	;	api-token=myapitoken...
C-lightning REST			rest_host	?	hex_macaroon

Eclair	prefix	d	server	d	auth	d	tls
BTCPay	type=eclair	;	server=https://eclair_host:8080/	;	password=eclairpassword...

LND

RPC

• lncli

  lncli --rpcserver=IP_ADDRESS:GRPC_PORT --tlscertpath=./../tls.cert --macaroonpath=./../admin.macaroon
• Suez https://github.com/prusnak/suez

poetry run ./suez --client-args=--rpcserver=IP_ADDRESS:GRPC_PORT --client-args=--tlscertpath=./../tls.cert --client-args=--macaroonpath=./../admin.macaroon

LNDconnect

• Specification

  https://github.com/LN-Zap/lndconnect/blob/master/lnd_connect_uri.md

lndconnect://<host>:<port>?[cert=<base64url_DER_certificate>&]macaroon=<base64url_macaroon>

• implementation

  https://github.com/raspiblitz/raspiblitz/blob/a22589c86109d56ecc1e1aca7abb214c7e9189c7/home.admin/config.scripts/bonus.lndconnect.sh#L194

# generate data parts
macaroon=$(sudo base64 /mnt/hdd/app-data/lnd/data/chain/${network}/${chain}net/admin.macaroon | tr -d '=' | tr '/+' '_-' | tr -d '\n')
cert=$(sudo grep -v 'CERTIFICATE' /mnt/hdd/lnd/tls.cert | tr -d '=' | tr '/+' '_-' | tr -d '\n')

# generate URI parameters
macaroonParameter="?macaroon=${macaroon}"
certParameter="&cert=${cert}"

lndconnect="lndconnect://${host}:${port}${macaroonParameter}${certParameter}"

Balance of Satoshis

https://github.com/alexbosworth/balanceofsatoshis#saved-nodes

• stored in

  ~/.bos/YOUR_NODE_NAME/credentials.json
• with base64 values

{
"cert": "base64 tls.cert value",
"macaroon": "base64 .macaroon value",
"socket": "host:port"
}

# For `cert` 
base64 ~/.lnd/tls.cert | tr -d '\n'
# For `macaroon`
base64 ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon | tr -d '\n'

• with path

  {
  "cert_path": "/path/lnd/tls.cert",
  "macaroon_path": "/path/lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon",
  "socket": "LND_IP:10009"
  }

BTCPayserver

• LND via the REST proxy:

  type=lnd-rest;server=https://mylnd:8080/;macaroon=abef263adfe...
  type=lnd-rest;server=https://mylnd:8080/;macaroon=abef263adfe...;certthumbprint=abef263adfe...
• macaroon

  xxd -plain /root/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon | tr -d '\n'
• certthumbprint:

  openssl x509 -noout -fingerprint -sha256 -in /root/.lnd/tls.cert | sed -e 's/.*=//;s/://g'
• optional:

  allowinsecure=true

C-lightning

Spark Wallet

https://github.com/shesek/spark-wallet

Sparko

https://github.com/fiatjaf/sparko Currently only works with a CA signed certificate. See: https://github.com/shesek/spark-wallet/blob/master/doc/tls.md#add-as-trusted-certificate-to-android

• Simply:

  URL?access-key=accessKey

  the accessKey has macaroon-like permissions

C-lightning REST (with Zeus)

https://github.com/Ride-The-Lightning/c-lightning-REST/

• No standard yet, but needs:

  URL?hex_macaroon
• generate the hex_macaroon:

  xxd -plain /home/bitcoin/c-lightning-REST/certs/access.macaroon | tr -d '\n'

BTCPayserver

• c-lightning via TCP or unix domain socket connection:

  type=clightning;server=unix://root/.lightning/lightning-rpc
  type=clightning;server=tcp://1.1.1.1:27743/
• Lightning Charge via HTTPS:

  type=charge;server=https://charge:8080/;api-token=myapitoken...

Eclair

BTCPayServer

• Eclair via HTTPS:

  type=eclair;server=https://eclair:8080/;password=eclairpassword...

Notes

• common dependencies

  sudo apt install qrencode base64 xxd
• generate a QRcode in the terminal (press CTRL + - to reduce the size)

  string="desired content or $(command output)"
  qrencode -t ANSIUTF8 "$string"
• base64_macaroon

  base64 ~/.lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon | tr -d '\n'
• hex_macaroon:

  xxd -plain /home/bitcoin/c-lightning-REST/certs/access.macaroon | tr -d '\n'
• base64_cert

  base64 ~/.lnd/tls.cert | tr -d '\n'
• certthumbprint:

  openssl x509 -noout -fingerprint -sha256 -in /root/.lnd/tls.cert | sed -e 's/.*=//;s/://g'
• inspect a tls.cert

  openssl x509 -in /mnt/hdd/lnd/tls.cert -noout -text
• display a Tor Hidden Service more at: https://openoms.github.io/bitcoin-tutorials/tor_hidden_service_example.html

  sudo cat /var/lib/tor/SERVICE_NAME/hostname
  # or on a RaspiBlitz
  sudo cat /mnt/hdd/tor/SERVICE_NAME/hostname