I just wish I could figure out how to use lightning.
The only wallet that appears to let you use lightning without a node requires downloading from an app store. No official APK?
Unless you have other suggestions?
Discussion
For custodial options (somebody else holds the sats/private key, you can withdraw at your leisure), coinos is great https://coinos.io/
For non-custodial option (you hold the keys, slightly more complex), I suggest Zeus wallet. Works fantastic.
Both options will get you an address in the format yourname@provider.com that you can use to receive zaps.
Thanks for explaining. I'll definitely want to get this working.
If I go the non-custodial way with zeus, does that still require me to host my own node? Also, once I make my lightning address, do I always need to open a new channel?
Much appreciated for your time and explanation 🙏
> If I go the non-custodial way with zeus, does that still require me to host my own node?
None of the options I listed require hosting your own node.
> Also, once I make my lightning address, do I always need to open a new channel?
If you're going the custodial route, this is all done in the background so you don't have to worry about it. For Zeus, the suggested workflow is:
1. Open Zeus wallet, go to lightning > receive and put in an amount like $5.00. You will be warned that setting up a channel incurs a on-chain tx fee (around 50c). If it asks if you want to use the zeus LSP, say yes.
2. You will now have a channel open w/ Zeus with $4.50 in it. It has no inbound liquidity (you have no room to receive payments). To get that, you need to spend some over lightning. You can zap others or use a service like boltz.exchange (non-custodial) who will take your BTC in lightning and return it to you on-chain.
3. Go to settings in Zeus and go to lightning address. It will give you an address like yourname@zeuspay.com. You can then plug that into your nostr client.
Channels can be a bit to wrap your head around at first. The way I think of it is this: when you buy a lightning channel, it's like buying a bucket. The size of the bucket is determined by how much you spent buying it. The bucket it the channel, water in the bucket is sats/BTC. When you first get the bucket, it's totally full, you can't put any more in in, but as you empty it, you make room to add more to it. You can empty and re-fill it infinite times.
If you get things setup, feel free to reply to my comment and I'll send a test zap