cln-pay

A simple web application that connects to C-lightning over rpc via a lightweight lightning-client and allows us to pay invoices and see our balance

Requirements

• You will need to have your own instance of C-lightning running
• You may need to the command line interface of C-lightning to connect to nodes in the lightning network and create channels with them
• You will also require nodejs and npm installed

Installation

1. git clone https://github.com/agnjkafgh/cln-pay.git on the same machine where c-lightning is running
2. cd cln-pay
3. npm install
4. Edit the config file in and add your appropriate lightning path. (The directory where c-lightning is installed on your system)
5. npm start

Setting up your own C-Lightning node

Use an ubuntu server and allow nodes to connect to PORT 9735. You will either need to connect your lightning Node to a remote bitcoind instance or run your own bitcoin node. If you are connecting to your own node setup bitcoind

Installing bitcoind

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y bitcoind
bitcoind -testnet -daemon

While bitcoind is syncing we can install c-lightning

Installing c-lightning

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  autoconf automake build-essential git libtool libgmp-dev \
  libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools zlib1g-dev libsodium-dev \
  libbase58-dev
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
cd lightning
./configure
make

After bitcoind is fully synced, cd lightning and run lightningd/lightningd with arguments of your choice If you are connecting to a remote bitcoind node, you can skip installing bitcoind. Instead setup a config file: vim ~/.lightning/config

bitcoin-rpcconnect=<ip-address-of-remote>
bitcoin-rpcport=<port-where-bitcoind-is-running> [deafault mainnet = 8332, testnet = 18332]
bitcoin-rpcuser=<username-in-bitcoin.conf-of-remote>
bitcoin-rpcpassword=<password-in-bitcoin.conf-of-remote>
network=testnet
alias=<Name your node>

Test if bitcoind is synced bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo. Check that headers = blocks. Then run lightningd/lightningd -daemon The lightning network sync takes a couple of minutes. Test if lightning is working, cd lightning , cli/lightning-cli getinfo

You should have your lightning node setup by now. Additionally you can connect to new nodes on the lightning network and fundchannels with them to get starting with routing and spending bitcoin on lightning

Finally you can connect this app with your lightning node by just editing the file config.js and entering the path of your lightning node