Lightning Network Service

Overview

The core of this project is a gRPC interface for node.js projects, available through npm.

The project can be run alone to create a simplified REST interface on top of LND that exposes functionality to client applications.

It is recommended to not expose the REST interface directly to the dangerous internet as that gives anyone control of your node.

The service can run in two modes:

As a library that can be used directly with GRPC
A standalone REST service that uses a simplified authentication secret key.

The direct GRPC mode is recommended.

Installing LND

https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md

If using Bitcoin Core, the following ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf configuration is recommended:

assumevalid= // plug in the current best block hash
daemon=1
dbcache=3000
disablewallet=1
rpcpassword= // make a strong password
rpcuser=bitcoinrpc
server=1
testnet=1 // Set as applicable
zmqpubrawblock=tcp://127.0.0.1:28332
zmqpubrawtx=tcp://127.0.0.1:28333

Sample LND configuration options (~/.lnd/lnd.conf)

[Application Options]
externalip=IP
rpclisten=0.0.0.0:10009

[Bitcoin]
bitcoin.active=1
bitcoin.mainnet=1
bitcoin.node=bitcoind

If you are interacting with your node remotely, make sure to set (in [Application Options])

tlsextraip=YOURIP

If using a domain for your LND, use the domain option:

tlsextradomain=YOURDOMAIN

If you're adding TLS settings, regenerate the cert and key by stopping lnd, deleting the tls.cert and tls.key - then restart lnd to regenerate.

If you're going to use extended gRPC APIs, make sure to add the APIs to make tags. make install tags="autopilotrpc chainrpc signrpc walletrpc"

Using gRPC

You can install ln-service service via npm

npm install ln-service

The GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES environment variable is needed for LND certs

export GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES='HIGH+ECDSA'

To set this, edit ~/.bash_profile in MacOS or ~/.profile in Linux, then do . ~/.bash_profile or . ~/.profile

Run base64 on the tls.cert and admin.macaroon files to get the encoded authentication data to create the LND connection. You can find these files in the LND directory. (~/.lnd or ~/Library/Application Support/Lnd)

base64 tls.cert
base64 data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon

Be careful to avoid copying any newline characters.

You can then interact with your LND node directly:

const lnService = require('ln-service');

const lnd = lnService.lightningDaemon({
  cert: 'base64 encoded tls.cert',
  macaroon: 'base64 encoded admin.macaroon',
  socket: '127.0.0.1:10009',
});

lnService.getWalletInfo({lnd}, (error, result) => {
  console.log(result);
});

Promises are also supported to allow async/await syntax

const getWalletInfo = require('ln-service/getWalletInfo');

const walletInfo = await getWalletInfo({lnd});

console.log(walletInfo.public_key);

Using as a Stand-Alone REST API Server

git clone https://github.com/alexbosworth/ln-service.git
cd ln-service
npm install

Configure

In REST mode:

For convenience in REST mode, you can make a .env file with KEY=VALUE pairs instead of setting environment variables.

Environment variables:

export GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES='HIGH+ECDSA'
export LNSERVICE_CHAIN="bitcoin" // or litecoin
export LNSERVICE_LND_DIR='~/.lnd/'
export LNSERVICE_NETWORK="testnet" // or mainnet
export LNSERVICE_SECRET_KEY=REPLACE!WITH!SECRET!KEY!

Setting environment variables in Linux:

Edit .bashrc or ~/.profile
$ source ~/.bashrc in the window you are running the service from

Setting environment variables in MacOS:

Edit ~/.bash_profile
$ . ~/.bash_profile in the window you are running the service from

Run the service:

npm start

REST API

Authentication is with Basic Authentication. Make sure that the request has an authorization header that contains Base64 encoded credentials.

Authorization: Basic {{TOKEN_GOES_HERE_WITHOUT_BRACES}}

To generate the Base64 encoded credentials in Chrome for example in the console you can:

> let username = 'test';
// username can be anything.
> let password = '1m5secret4F';
// password must match the LNSERVICE_SECRET_KEY in your env variables.
> btoa(`${username}:${password}`);
// dGVzdDoxbTVlY3JldDRG

And then set the value of the Authorization header to the returned value dGVzdDoxbTVlY3JldDRG.

Copy the result as the token in the above example.

Tests

Unit tests:

$ npm test

Integration tests:

btcd and lnd are required to execute the integration tests.

$ npm run integration-tests

plwalters / ln-service