Guides and articles about Bitcoin and how to use it in practical use cases. Education is the key in this matter. Hyperbitcoinization will happen ONLY when more people know how to use Bitcoin and how to be a sovereign individual.
IMPORTANT ASPECTS:
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Blixt is a private node, NOT a routing node! Keep that in mind : That means, all the LN channels in Blixt will be unannounced to the LN graph (so called private channels). That means, THIS NODE WILL NOT DO ROUTING of others payments through Blixt node. This Blixt node is NOT for routing, I repeat. Is mainly to be able to manage your own LN channels and do your LN payments privately, whenever you need. This Blixt node, is necessary to be online and synced ONLY BEFORE you are going to do your transactions. That’s why you will see an icon on top that indicate the sync status. It takes only few moments, depending how much time you kept it offline.
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Blixt is using LND (aezeed) as wallet backend, so don’t try to import other types of bitcoin wallets into it. Here you have explained the types of wallet mnemonic seeds. And here is a more extensive list of all types of wallets. So if you had previously a LND node, you can import the seed and the backup.channels into Blixt, as it is explained in this guide.
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At the end of this guide you will find a special section with "tips and tricks"
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Blixt important links - see them at the end of this guide, please bookmark them.
Blixt - First Contact
- “enable Tor” - user can start with Tor network, in special if wanted to restore an old LND node that was running with Tor only peers.
- “Set Bitcoin node” - if user want to connect to its own node directly, to sync the blocks through Neutrino, can do it straight away from welcome screen. This option is also good in case that your internet connection or Tor, is not so stable to connect to default bitcoin node (node.blixtwallet.com).
- Soon it will be added the language there, so user can start straight with a language that is comfortable. If you want to contribute to this open source project with translations in other languages, please join here.
OPTION A - Create new wallet
- Got to the Blixt Community list of peers
- Select a node and click on its name title link, it will open its Amboss page
- Click to display the QR code for the node URI address
Blixt - Second Contact
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Spend some sats from existing channel. Yes, LN is a payment network of Bitcoin, used mainly to spend your sats faster, cheaper, private and easy. LN is NOT a hodling way, for that you have the onchain wallet.
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Swap some sats, back into your onchain wallet, using a submarine swap service. In this way you are not spending your sats, but giving it back to your own onchain wallet. Here you can see in details some methods, in the Blixt Guides Page.
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Open an INBOUND channel from any LSP provider. Here is a video demo about how to use LNBig LSP for opening an inbound channel. That means, you will pay a small fee for an EMPTY channel (on your side) and you will be able to receive more sats into that channel. If you are a merchant that receive more than spend, that is a good option. Also if you are buying sats over LN, using Robosats or any other LN exchange.
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Open a Dunder channel, with Blixt node or any other Dunder LSP provider. A Dunder channel is a simple way to get some INBOUND liquidity, but in the same time you deposit some sats into that channel. Is also good because it will open the channel with an UTXO that is not from your Blixt wallet. That add some privacy. Is also good because, if you do not have sats into an onchain wallet, to open a normal LN channel, but you have them into another LN wallet, you can just pay from that another wallet through LN the opening and the deposit (on your side) of that Dunder channel. More details how Dunder works and how to run your own server here.
- Go to Settings, in “Experiments” section activate the box for “Enable Dunder LSP”.
- Once you did that, go back up to “Lightning Network” section and you will see that appeared the option “Set Dunder LSP Server”. There, by default is set “https://dunder.blixtwallet.com” but you can change it with any other Dunder LSP provider address. Here is a Blixt community list with nodes that can provide Dudner LSP channels for your Blixt.
- Now you can go to main screen and click on “Receive” button. Then follow this procedure explained in this guide.
Blixt - Third Contact
- Option A - Create new wallet
- Option B - Restore wallet
OPTION B - Restore wallet
- top box is where you have to fill with all 24 words from your seed (old / dead node)
- bottom are two button options to insert / upload the channel.backup file, previously saved from your old Blixt/LND node. It can be from a local file (you upload it into your device previously) or can be from a Google drive / iCloud remote location. Blixt have this option to save your channels backup directly into a Google / iCloud drive. See more details in Blixt Features Page.
- We suppose that you already saved the Blixt Wallet seed (24 words aezeed)
- On the old device, go to "Settings" - debug section - "Compact LND database". This step is optional but recommended if you want a smaller size of the channel.db file. Usually is quite big, depending of your node activity. This will restart Blixt and compact the db file size.
- Once restarted, go to "Settings" and change your regular alias name to "Hampus". This will activate the hidden options, only for advanced users.
- Go way down to "Debug" section and you will see a new option "Export channel.db file". WARNING! Once you do this export, the existing Blixt LN node will be disabled on this old device and will export the entire node database (channel.db) ready to be imported into a new device.
- This db file will be saved into a designated folder on your old device (Documents or Downloads) and from there you will have to move it as it is to your new device. You can use for example LocalSend FOSS app to transfer the file directly between devices.
- In this moment your old Blixt MUST stay shut down. DO NOT OPEN IT AGAIN!
- Once you transfer the channel.db file to the new device, start the new installation of Blixt and choose "Restore wallet" in the first screen.
- On the button where it says "Select SCB file" long press (NOT simple click!) and then you will see the option to select a channel.db file where you save it locally in the new device. If you just simple press that button it will use by default a SCB file (with closing channels), it doesn't work for full backup live channels.
- Put the 24 words seed and then click "Restore"
- You will see that Blixt will start syncing with Neutrino. You can watch the sync logs too.
- KEEP IN MIND! Try to keep Blixt open all the time on this phase! Do not let it go on sleep or close the app screen. That could intrerrupte the initial sync and you have to do it again. Wait patiently, is not taking more then few minutes.
- Once the initial blocks sync is finished it will quickly scan your previous wallet addresses and then your channels will be back online, alive and well.
- Unfortunately the previous payments history and contacts is not possible (yet) to be restored. But that is not so important anyways.
Blixt - Fourth Contact
A - Name (NameDesc)
B - Lightning Box
C - Backup LN Channels and seed words
- “Show mnemonic” - will display the 24 words seed to write them down
- “Remove mnemonic from device” - this is optional and use it only if you really want to remove the seed words from your device. This will NOT wipe your wallet, only the seed. But be aware ! There is not way to recover them if you did not write them down first.
- “Export channel backup” - this option will save a small file on your local device, usually into “downloads” folder, from where you can take it and move it outside your device, for safe keeping.
- “Verify channel backup” - this is good option if you use Google drive or iCloud to check the integrity of the backup done remotely.
- “ Google drive channel backup” - will save the backup file into your personal Google drive. The file is encrypted and is stored in a separate repository than your usual google files. So there are no concerns that can be read by anybody. Anyways that file is totally useless without the seed words, so nobody can take your funds from that file only.
- use a password manager to store safely your seed and backup file. KeePass or Bitwarden are very good for that and can be used on multiplatform and self hosted or offline.
- DO THE BACKUP EVERY TIME you open or close a channel. That file is updated with the channels info. There’s no need to do it after each transaction you’ve done on LN. The channel backup is not storing that info, is storing only the status of the channel.
Blixt - Tips and Tricks
CASE 1 - SYNCING PROBLEMS
- Here's a less technical explanation from Bitcoin Magazine
- Here are more technical resources from Bitcoin Optech
- Here is how you can activate Neutrino on your own home node and serve blocks filters for your mobile node, from Docs Lightning Engineering
- stop using Blixt with Tor. Is totally useless
- you can use a VPN but choose it wisely and monitor all the time the ping. Use one that is closer to your geographical location. Distance means more ms response time, remember.
- select wisely your neutrino peers, here is a list of well known public neutrino servers:
For US region btcd1.lnolymp.us | btcd2.lnolymp.us btcd-mainnet.lightning.computer swest.blixtwallet.com (Seattle) node.eldamar.icu noad.sathoarder.com bb1.breez.technology | bb2.breez.technology neutrino.shock.network For EU region europe.blixtwallet.com (Germany) For Asia region sg.lnolymp.us asia.blixtwallet.com
CASE 2 - NEVER FINISH SYNCING
Time Server
Low space on device
Persistent mode
CASE 3 - I WANT TO MIGRATE TO ANOTHER DEVICE
- Always do a backup of your channels status (SCB) AFTER each time you open or close a channel. It takes just few seconds to do it.
- Do not keep the old SCB files, to not get confused and restore them. Are totally useless and could trigger a penalty procedure if you se them. Always use the last version of the SCB file if you proceed to restore.
- Save the SCB file (is an encrypted text with the extension .bin) out of your device, in a safe place. You can use LocalSend for moving this file onto a PC or other device.
- Save also the seed of your Blixt wallet in a safe place, for example an offline password manager / encrypted USB.
CASE 4 - WHAT PEERS TO USE TO OPEN CHANNELS?
- open with well known LSP nodes and with community vouched peers. See here a list
- do not open with random Tor only nodes. Those are worthless and you will get only issues of not being able to do payments. No matter how good is your friend "the node runner" with a shity Tor node in a jungle, it will never give you the best routes for a mobile private node. You do not open channels with somebody because is your friend. This is not Facebook! You open a channel for: good routes, small fees, availability.
- there's no need to open a shit ton of small channels, 2-3 or max 4, but with a good amount of sats. Do not open small channels, are totally useless. Smaller than 200k for a mobile have not much use.
- keep in mind the LSPs that offer inbound channels and JIT (just in time) channels. Those are very useful because you do not need to use any of your UTXOs, you can pay the opening channel with funds you already have in other LN wallets, stacking and preparing them for a bigger channel to open. You should use these JIT channels in your favor. I've explained in this guide more options for peers for private nodes like Blixt. Also here in this guide posted on SN I explained how to manage the private mobile nodes liquidity.
Conclusion
- Blixt Official Webpage
- Blixt Github page
- Blixt Features page - explaining one by one each feature and functionality.
- Blixt FAQ page - List of Q&A and troubleshooting of Blixt
- Blixt Guides page - demos, video tutorials, extra guides and use cases for Blixt
- Download: Android Play Store | iOS | APK direct download
- Telegram group for direct support
- Geyser crowdfunding page - donate sats as you like to support the project
- LNURL Chat Blixt - anonymous LN chat
- Blixt presentation - promo video
- Blixt Girls Calendar - promo video (you can test your 1st use of LN)
- Printable A4 flyer with first steps using Blixt, in various languages.
- Blixt also offers a full functional demo right on its website or on a dedicated version web, to have a full experience testing, before start using in real world.
Author
This tutorial has been written by Darth Coin
You can say thanks by tipping the professor.
Credits
This tutorial has been proofread by LoicPandul
Even if this content is in its original language, human review is necessary to ensure its accuracy.
LoicPandul4 039 sats2 020 satsEvery content on the platform is the result of a collaborative effort: each lesson, translation, and revision is made possible by the work of contributors. For this reason, we are always looking for proofreaders who can review our content in many languages. If you want to participate in the proofreading process, please reach out in our Telegram group and read our tutorial. We remind you that this content is open-source - licensed under CC BY-SA - so it can be freely shared and used, as long as the original source is credited.
