Lightning Protocol Reference Implementation

In this repository we're developing a reference implementation of bitcoin lightning (see: http://lightning.network which proposed the original "lightning network").

This implementation is being developed in parallel with the protocol definition, which you can find on my fork of the protocol description repository.

If you're interested in using the daemon to test payments, the JSON-RPC interface is documented in the following manual pages:

• invoice
• listinvoice
• waitinvoice
• delinvoice
• getroute
• sendpay

Steps:

0. If you're running a previous version, you'll need to shut it down (maybe close channels first) and delete the $HOME/.lightning directory.
1. Install and compile the requirements.
2. Make sure bitcoind is running in testnet mode, and has the latest blocks.
3. Get some test bitcoins, such as from TPs' testnet faucet.
4. If you want others to connect to your lightningd, create $HOME/.lightning/config and put port=8334 in it (or any other port).
5. Run daemon/lightningd.
6. Run daemon/lightning-cli getinfo to check it's working.
7. Find a node using daemon/lightning-cli getnodes (this will populate over time).
8. Create a new connection to the node using contrib/lightning-open-channel ADDRESS PORT AMOUNT where AMOUNT is in BTC (.04294967 is the maximum possible). If successful, this will return only once a block has been mined with the funding transaction in it.
9. You can create more channels if you wish.
10. You can accept payment using daemon/lightning-cli invoice MILLISATOSHI LABEL; it will give you a payment hash to give to the payer.
11. You can send payments using contrib/lightning-pay DEST-ID MILLISATOSHI PAYMENT-HASH.

Final note: This is very much a testbed and work in progress; expect All The Things to change, all the time.

Welcome aboard!

Rusty.