**Relay** is a Node.js wrapper around [LND](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd), handling connectivity and storage for [**Sphinx**](https://sphinx.chat). Communication between Relay nodes takes place entirely on the Lightning Network, so is decentralized, untraceable, and encrypted. Message content is also end-to-end encrypted using client public keys, on the **Sphinx** app itself.
**Relay** is a Node.js wrapper around [LND](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd), handling connectivity and storage for [**Sphinx**](https://sphinx.chat). Communication between Relay nodes takes place entirely on the Lightning Network, so is decentralized, untraceable, and encrypted. Message content is also end-to-end encrypted using client public keys, on the **Sphinx** app itself.
Copy your id_rsa to clone the private lnd-lean repo.
```
cp ~/.ssh/id_rsa .
```
Build it.
```
docker-compose build
```
Edit your docker-compose.yml file replacing NODE_IP and NODE_ALIAS.
Relay will run on port 3000 local. You would need to point your router's port forwarding from 80 to 3000 to your docker machine.
Start up LND separately first.
```
docker-compose up lnd
```
- In another terminal, go to the project folder and run.
```
docker-compose exec lnd bash
```
Once you're given a bash, run `ping lnd` and take note of the IP, this is because we need to tell Relay where lnd is via the IP, this is a temporary measure due to the limitation of the grpc connection can only be done via IP and not domain name.
Edit your app.json file inside config and on the `production` key replace `node_ip` with the one from the ping.
Run Relay.
```
docker-compose up node_server
```
Create / Unlock your wallet
```
docker-compose exec lnd lncli create
docker-compose exec lnd lncli unlock
```
NOTE: All lncli commands need to be prepended with `docker-compose exec lnd`, this tells docker to execute **something** on the lnd container.
## Without Docker
You can run your own Sphinx node in order to have full ownership over your communication!
Gonzalo Javier Aune
5 years ago