In this article I will lay out my experiences with different setups shortly before I document their/my respective troubles. The setups I have running are:
- RaspiBolt by Stadicus (lnd implementation)
- Node Launcher by Pierre Rochard (lnd implementation)
- BTCPay Server by Nicolas Dorier (c-lightning implementation)
Like many Bitcoiners I too am very excited about Lightning Network. There are a lot of great developments around LN and great documentations on Medium and github, that enable even semi-tech-savvy people like me to begin playing around:
RaspiBolt
Since winter is pretty unbearable in Germany I figured trying out and getting familiar with LN would be a meaningful activity and decided to jump in. I started with Stadicus detailed RaspiBolt guide titled “Beginner’s Guide to ️Lightning️ on a Raspberry Pi” and I must say: Even though my lack of command line skills caused some amount of frustration, it was a very fulfilling and exciting endeavour. That feeling when I paid the first testnet invoice for a Blockaccino on Starblocks was already great, but when I finally switched to mainnet and unlocked an article on Yall’s for 1500 Satoshis in an instant – I got goosebumps.
Node Launcher
Ever since I am a junkie for LN articles and I want to learn as much as possible and try out different implementations. I decided since my bitcoin core full node is still running on my laptop, I’d try out Pierre Rochard’s Node Launcher and followed his “Easiest Bitcoin Lightning Guide!“. Pierre’s code makes setup very easy and his nicely illustrated step by step guide was easy to follow. I set up Zap Desktop wallet as well as Joule’s Chrome extension and made some payments right from my browser. Wicked.
BTCPay Server
Shortly after I came across a nice tutorial by BTCPay Server on how to implement Blockstream’s Lightning Network Publisher for WordPress. The prospect of implementing Yalls.org-like paywalls on a WordPress site sounded great! Luckily, BTCPay Server community had a 1-click-implementation for VPS provider LunaNode that makes things really easy. Including initial sync of the bitcoin blockchain it took less than three days and my BTCPay Server was up and running.