Demo: Litd Speed Run

Learn how to spin up a new Lightning Network node in less than 15 minutes

Using litd in integrated mode and the Neutrino backend, we are able to spin up a Lightning Network node, fully synced to chain and graph within 15 minutes on a fresh Ubuntu Virtual Private Server.

LND Speed Run

Step by step instructions

Hardware:

We are using a VPS with 2GB of RAM and 1 vCPU running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It has 20GB of space on an SSD. We make sure the device is up to date with:

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade

Downloading and verifying litd

We will download the latest litd binaries from their release page. Check for the latest version, manifest and gpg signatures as well as the key used to sign them.

First we will download the necessary files:

gpg --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 187F6ADD93AE3B0CF335AA6AB984570980684DCC wget https://github.com/lightninglabs/lightning-terminal/releases/download/v0.11.0-alpha/lightning-terminal-linux-amd64-v0.11.0-alpha.tar.gz wget https://github.com/lightninglabs/lightning-terminal/releases/download/v0.11.0-alpha/manifest-v0.11.0-alpha.sig wget https://github.com/lightninglabs/lightning-terminal/releases/download/v0.11.0-alpha/manifest-v0.11.0-alpha.txt

Finally we will verify whether the manifest is properly signed and whether the sha256 sum in the manifest matches the one we calculate.

gpg --verify manifest-v0.11.0-alpha.sig manifest-v0.11.0-alpha.txt cat manifest-v0.11.0-alpha.txt sha256sum lightning-terminal-linux-amd64-v0.11.0-alpha.tar.gz

Installing litd

Installing the binaries is as easy as moving them to a location where your operating system can find them.

cd lightning-terminal-linux-amd64-v0.11.0-alpha/ sudo mv * /usr/local/bin

Prepare configuration files

We will have to create a directory and make a new configuration file

mkdir ~/.lit nano ~/.lit/lit.conf

A sample configuration file might look like this. Don't forget to create a new password!

httpslisten=0.0.0.0:8443
uipassword=dont use this password you will use all your coins
lnd-mode=integrated
lnd.bitcoin.active=1
lnd.bitcoin.mainnet=1
lnd.bitcoin.node=neutrino
lnd.feeurl=https://nodes.lightning.computer/fees/v1/btc-fee-estimates.json
lnd.protocol.option-scid-alias=true
lnd.protocol.zero-conf=true

Start litd

We can start litd with the command litd. Alternatively we can also use nohup to push the process into the background and observe its logs.

nohup litd > /dev/null 2> /home/ubuntu/.lit/err.log &

tail -f ~/.lit/logs/mainnet/litd.log

Create a wallet

We will create a new wallet with the command:

lncli create

Follow the instructions on the screen, create a new seed phrase and write it down somewhere securely, ideally with a pencil on paper.

Sync litd

We will now wait for litd to sync. This should only take a few minutes. We can check on the progress with:

lncli getinfo lncli getnetworkinfo

We will wait for "synced to chain" and "synced to graph" to both appear as true

Connect to Lightning Terminal

Finally, we will navigate to your node's IP address at port 8443 to access the litd UI and connect to Lightning Terminal. This will require the password set in the litd.conf file, as well as a second, new password generated with your password manager.

Open channels

We are now ready to deposit funds into our node, open channels and make payments. Congratulations!